Out of Sight
by hardrocker21
Summary: An accident leaves Lincoln blind and his sister's upset. The one question they ask themselves is, is it temporary? Or is it permanent? And how will Lincoln cope with his loss of vision?
1. Chapter 1

**So this is a kind of story that I've always wanted to write. I've always wanted to toy with the idea that someone have a potentially life altering experience and decided to do a Loud House story on it.**

 **The inspiration for this story actually comes from an episode of my favorite TV show of all time, MASH. In the episode Out of Sight, Out of Mind one of the main characters, Hawkeye, is temporarily left blind after an accident. The episode is really moving as it's not just about Hawkeye dealing with blindness, but also him seeing the world without actually looking at it. That will play into the story later on. But for now we need to set it up.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House**

* * *

Winter had come to the town of Royal Woods, Michigan. There was already a light coating of snow on the frozen ground and there was a massive chill in the air that could freeze ones skin quickly if it was left exposed. Several pipes in the sewer system had already frozen over and icicles clung to rooftops, power lines, and trees all over the town. The nearby lakes and ponds had all frozen over as the chill air swept in from the Great Lakes. For many homes, the walls and insulation weren't sufficient in keeping the cold temperatures out. So many heaters were left running in overtime to keep the houses and their occupants warm.

On Franklin Avenue, one large house's furnace was running in overtime as well as it had many people to keep warm inside. A family of thirteen lived inside this dwelling with two parents and eleven children consisting of ten daughters and one son. The furnace had the job of keeping them and the entire house warm as long as it's pilot light remained lit. It'd be a real shame if it were to suddenly go out.

On one far end of the upstairs hallway was the room of the family's only boy which at one time had been just a linen closet. He currently lay snug in his bed and was sleeping quite comfortably through the icy night. That was until he suddenly felt a desperate need. The need to pee.

Lincoln's eyes popped open and he said, "Aw man. I hate going in the middle of the night."

He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and as his feet hit the ground, he recoiled from the sudden shock of the cold ground.

"YOW! COLD! Why is it cold?!" Lincoln shouted out loud from the feeling of the cold floor.

As he exhaled, he could see the cold cloud of his breath wafting through the air. He then realized that he was beginning to rub his arms subconsiously as he began to feel the cold air on his skin. His room was freezing which didn't surprise him too much due to the cold night, but even then the furnace should have at least kept the room at a far more comfortable temperature. But now it felt like that his room was packed with ice.

It didn't take him long to realize that his sudden shouts had roused the rest of the household from their slumber. The walls in the closet weren't exactly the thickest, so he could hear the grumbling coming from his sisters in the other rooms.

"Who just shouted? I NEED MY BEAUTY SLEEP!" came Lola's voice.

"It's literally the middle of the night," said the eldest sister, Lori.

"Ahh! It's so dark," shouted Leni.

Lori groaned and say, "Open your eyes Leni."

He could hear Leni squee as his closet neighbors began to stir.

"Sigh. I was having a pleasant nightmare and now it's over. Thanks a lot," said Lucy.

"Dang it Lincoln. Why did you have to disturb us this time?" Lynn shouted.

"Hey is anyone else feeling a bit chilly? I woke up angry and hot, but now I'm feeling ice cold," came Luan's voice as she laughed at her failed pun.

"Ugh! It's freezing dudes," Luna added.

"Seem's that the frigid climate typical for this time of year has advanced upon us and overtaken our abode. In layman's term, IT'S FREEZING IN HERE!" shouted the second youngest, Lisa in her usual lisp.

The youngest, baby Lily, merely slept through the whole exchange.

Lincoln groaned and pulled on his robe and slipped into his slippers before entering the hall. He quickly dashed past the other doors to the bathroom before everyone else came out into the hall. He reached the bathroom and quickly did his business. By the time he had finished, pretty much all of the sisters had gathered outside and they were already complaining. Some of them complained about being woken and, naturally, blamed Lincoln for it. The rest complained about how cold the house was. The hallway became so clustered that Lincoln wouldn't even be able to navigate around the girls.

The bickering continued until they heard the sound of someone clapping their hands as they flipped on the hallway light.

"Okay that is enough everyone. What is this about?," came their father's voice.

With that, everyone finished their petty squabbles and stood at their father's attention. Lincoln took the oppurtunity to try to slink back to his room, but Lori spotted what he was trying to do and grabbed him by the collar of his robe and pulled him back.

"Where do you think you're going twerp? If we're being scolded, you are too," she said to him with a glare in her eyes.

"Well? Is someone going to answer?" their father, Lynn Sr. continued.

It was here that each of the girls began speaking at once, complaining about the cold and Lincoln having woken them up with his sudden outburst. Lynn Sr. was overwhelmed by the amount of badgering the girls were giving him all at once and this combined with how cold the house was too much for him to handle all at once. He normally had plenty of patience with the girls when they all spoke at once, but he was far too cold for this and needed some normalcy right now.

"GIRLS! One at a time please. Now I heard something about the cold and Lincoln. Can just one of you-" He started, but when each of the girls opened their mouths to explain, he quickly stopped them. "JUST ONE, please explain what you're all bickering about this time."

Lori stepped in, dragging Lincoln with her and said, "Lincoln shouted and woke us all up. And then we realized how cold it's gotten in here."

"We'd still be asleep in our beds if it weren't for Lincoln," Lola added.

Lynn shivered and growled out, "Way to go genius."

"Don't undermine me," Lisa quipped to Lynn.

The girls were beginning to bicker again but before Lynn Sr. could intervene, his wife, Rita, called out to him from downstairs.

"Honey I just tried the furnace. I think the pilot light is out," Rita called up to her husband.

Lynn Sr. sighed quite audibly. It figures that the pilot light would go out in the middle of the night. The middle of a FRIGID night to add to the misery. It didn't help that pretty much everyone in the house was now awake and arguing like a bunch of little kids, which some of them were of course.

"That explains the problem. Okay so I'm going to need someone to come help me relight the pilot. Any volunteers?" Lynn Sr. asked the kids.

None of the kids raised their hands, just as Lynn Sr. had expected them to do. He asked again, raising his voice this time.

"I repeat. Any volunteers or do I need to pick one?"

Lola frowned and said, "Why should one of us do it? Lincoln was the one who woke us all up."

"I agree. It should be Lincoln," Lori added.

Pretty much all of the sisters that were present agreed with the two of them and voted for Lincoln. The only ones who abstained were Leni and Luna, neither of whom cared who went. They just wanted to get back to sleep without the cold stinging their skin. Lincoln wanted to protest, but given how he was vastly outnumbered, it would be a futile effort to do so.

"That settles it then. Lincoln come with me to fix the furnace," Lynn Sr. ordered his son.

"But-," he tried to argue, but was stopped.

"Now young man. The sooner we relight the furnace, the sooner we all get back to sleep," Lynn Sr. told his son.

With a sigh, Lincoln knew that he had been defeated. Instead of trying to argue his case any further, he followed his father downstairs to the kitchen where the basement door was located. On the way there he saw his mother was trying desperatly to fiddle with the thermostat, trying to get at least a little heat in the house. Didn't help that she was breathing into her hands and rubbing them together to keep her hands warm. Lincoln could already feel the cold starting to bleed through his robe and decided that he really should help if it meant turning the heat back on.

They soon reached the basement door and braced themselves. The upstairs alone was unbearably cold and heat rises. They weren't even looking forward to finding out just how cold the basement was first hand. His father opened the door and as he tried to flip the light on, the bulb in the basement flashed and with a pop it died.

"Well crap," Lynn Sr. said as he reached into his pajama pocket, pulling out a flashlight. "Good thing I came prepared."

Flipping on the flashlight, the father and son duo descended the stairs into the dark and creepy basement. Lincoln and his sisters had always thought their basement to be a bit creepy, especially in the dark. The sounds that eminated from it would always give them chills whenever they had to come down here. Lincoln could still remember the time that he and his sisters had to come down to turn the lights back on after he had accidentally caused them to go out. He had tried really hard to be brave for them that time, but still ended up being scared by a pile of laundry. He still felt embarrassed every time it was brought up.

In short order, the two of them stepped out onto the basement floor and they approached the furnace. Lincoln began to shiver a bit more due to the lower temperatures in the basement. He was just glad he was at least wearing his slippers. His father did the same, but looked like he was handling it a bit easier than the young boy. Lynn Sr. picked up a small tool box he always kept stored near the furnace and took out a long lighter from it. He lit it once, just to make sure that the lighter was in good working condition.

"Alright here's what we're going to do. I'll turn on the gas and you're going to light the flame," Lynn Sr. told Lincoln and pointed out where Lincoln was supposed to light the flame.

Lynn Sr. handed Lincoln the lighter and searched around for the gas regulator valve.

"Dad, I'm not sure about this," Lincoln told his dad.

Lincoln actually felt pretty nervous about having to light the flame, let alone that he had to use a lighter over gas.

Lynn Sr. looked back at his son and said, "It'll be okay Lincoln. Just do as I tell you and things will alright."

Lynn Sr. found the regulator valve and told Lincoln to light the lighter. Lincoln did as his father instructed as his father looked away him and turned the valve. He heard the click of the lighter and for a moment things seemed right. The pilot light lit and Lincoln felt a sense of relief. But the joy was short lived as the light suddenly went out again.

"It's okay Lincoln. One more time," Lynn Sr. said and tried the valve again.

This time as Lincoln tried to light the pilot, nothing happened. The flame from the lighter just stayed in place and flickered from the cold air. Lincoln told his dad about the flame not lighting, and Lynn Sr. could feel his frustration rising.

"Dammit. Hold on, I'm going to try something," Lynn Sr. said and shook the side of the furnace a bit.

"Dad?" Lincoln tried, but his father ignored him.

Lynn Sr. tried to shake the valve again, not even realizing that he had accidentally turned the gas up quite a bit in the process. Lincoln however had seen it and tried to warn his dad about it, but once again his father ignored him and focused on trying to get the gas flowing again. This time he became so desperate that he began to bang the side of the furnace with his fist. A rumble came from the furnace and subsequently became silent.

"DAD!" Lincoln yelled out, but it was too late.

Lynn Sr. gave the furnace a good hard kick and finally the gas was released. This resulted in a bright flash from the furnace and a small blast of heat. The sudden blast startled him so bad that he stumbled and fell to the floor. Though it wasn't the blast, the flash or even the cold air that chilled him the most.

It was the sound of his son screaming.

Back upstairs, the rest of the family had gathered down in the living room since their mother had just gotten a small fire going in the fireplace. It didn't help much, but it was warmer down here than it was upstairs so it would have to do until they could get the heat back on. They were just settling in when they felt a small rumble and heard the small blast coming from the basement.

Then they could hear Lincoln screaming.

"Oh great. What did the twerp do this time?" Lori said in annoyance.

"Ugh! Did he hurt himself again?" Lana added.

"Can he do anything without breaking something?" Lynn said as well.

While most of the girls expressed annoyance, it was only Leni, Luna, and Luan who showed actual concern. In fact as soon as she had heard Lincoln screaming, Leni dashed from the room and towards the basement door. As soon as she opened the door, her father practically burst through the door and was dragging Lincoln with him. Lincoln had stopped screaming, but was letting out pained gasps as he kept his eyes covered.

Lynn Sr. turned to his second eldest daughter and said, "Leni, help me get Lincoln to the couch. He won't move his hands."

Leni wasted no time and quickly grasped Lincoln's shoulder and quickly, yet carefully, helped her father guide Lincoln to the living room. As soon as they entered, the rest of the family looked to see what they hadn't expected. They made room on the couch as Leni and their father pulled Lincoln to the couch. Lynn Sr. turned to his wife and told her to call a doctor. Rita did just that as the girls began to gather around Lincoln, who still refused to pull his hands away from his eyes. At the very least, he wasn't thrashing around so they could approach him as Leni wrapped an arm around him and held him close to her.

"Lincoln, I need you to move your hands from your eyes so I can take a look," his father said, but Lincoln wouldn't budge.

His father felt he had no choice, so he gently grasped Lincoln's wrists and carefully pulled them away from Lincoln's face. What he saw was alarming to say the least. The pupils of Lincoln's eyes were dilated and were practically bloodshot. Tears endlessly streamed from his eyes as the area directly around his eyes were slightly burned from the heat of the blast.

"Oh my God. Lincoln I'm so sorry," his father said as he wrapped his arms around his son and hugged him.

Pretty soon the rest of the girls got a good look at Lincoln's eyes and saw the damage themselves. Some of them gasped while the rest felt sick at the sight. As for Lincoln though, he could hear them but wouldn't look right at them. He held his hand out and tightly grasped his father's arm without making eye contact or even looking at him.

"Dad! I can't see," was all Lincoln could get out.

* * *

 **So I'm just going to point this out real quick, I'm not an expert when it comes Ophthalmology and everything I've written and will likely write comes from the medical journals I read to prepared for this story and some of them contradict each other so if I make any mistakes I do apologize. Feel free to point them out to me.**

 **I really do wonder why many of us actually like to put this poor kid through hell. Doesn't his family do that to him enough? Yes, but sometimes I do like seeing it go just one step further. Not out of spite, but I think it can make for good story telling when done right.**


	2. Chapter 2

**First off I just want to say that I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of support that my first chapter got. All the faves and the reviews were more than what I was expecting. For everyone that has faved and commented so far, I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. I can't promise regular updates, but I will get them out when I can. I just ask for a little patience, because Summer is a busy time of the year for me and I'm going to be taking my time with this story.**

 **And since this story is inspired by the show MASH, I'm going throw in a little Easter Egg in this chapter. If anyone reading this is familiar with show, you should be able to spot it very easily.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House**

* * *

Usually late nights were the only peaceful time at the house at 1216 Franklin Avenue since the entire family was usually asleep at that point, with the exception of young Lisa Loud's late night experiments which were, at times, had a tendency to be a little explosive. The only other times were usually on Friday nights with the kids celebrating the arrival of the weekend that could last until near midnight. But they never went on into the early morning hours and they certainly never involved an ambulance and a police car sitting in front of the house, unless Lynn had busted her leg while playing sports inside the house again.

A few of the neighbors did take casual glances outside to see what was going on, including the elderly and typically grumpy Mr. Grouse. There was tense feelings going on, but there was some relief as neighbors watched the police car pull away indicating that what was going on wasn't as serious as originally believed, but with the ambulance sticking around they knew that whatever was going on was still pretty serious. They all wondered, but for now that's all that anyone outside the house could do.

Inside the house, a couple of men in EMT uniforms had placed some patches over Lincoln's eyes and were currently wrapping a bandage around them to keep them in place. They had administered a saline solution for Lincoln's eyes in case anything had gotten in them that shouldn't have. But as far as they could tell, there wasn't much else that they could do but hope that the young lads eyes got better.

The living room was currently devoid of any other people save for Lincoln's parents as they sat on each side of him doing their best to keep him relaxed and immobile. He had stopped freaking out at this point and was letting the medics do their jobs, but he was still taking heaving breaths. Anyone listening to him could tell that he was still feeling a little bit of pain, despite the reassurances the medical team were giving him that the pain would pass.

"Alright partner listen to me. As long as you have those patches on your eyes, you must keep them closed. The solution on them should take care of the pain soon," one of the paramedics, an African-American man with a small mustache assured him.

This didn't help Lincoln as he let out a little whine in response. His mother sat to the right and was griping his hand so tightly that she was practically squeezing it at the this point. She whispered soothing things into his ear to keep him calm, while his father sat to his left and was staying silent. He knew it was just an accident, but he still felt responsible for this whole ordeal. He had forced Lincoln to help him with the furnace and when his son had tried to warn him about the excess gas that was being released, he wouldn't listen. He was currently patting Lincoln's other hand to assure the boy that he was sitting by him. All he could think right now was that his wasn't able to look at him as he didn't want his son to be seeing him shedding tears.

"So how does he look?" Lynn Sr. asked the men.

The African-American man looked at his partner and asked, "What do you think Roger? Should we get the boy to the hospital?"

The other EMT, a caucasion man, shook his head and said, "Well his injuries aren't life threatening and it sounds like the pain is going down. I don't think a hospital visit is really warranted."

While Rita was a little relieved at the news that they wouldn't need to take a hospital trip, Lynn Sr. however wasn't nearly as accepting.

"Not warranted?" Lynn Sr asked with his anger rising.

Rita could sense Lynn's anger beginning to rise and given how Lincoln was gripping her hand even tighter than before now, she could tell that he was beginning to feel it as well. Lynn Sr. was a man of great patience, neccesary for the father of eleven children, and only really lost his temper when the kids did something more than just destructive. So for both Lincoln and Rita this was something incredibly rare for them to experience. Lincoln had made his dad angry in the past before, plenty of times and usually involving one of his sisters. But this was the first time he could feel his father actually beginning to lose his cool.

"Not warranted. MY SON CAN'T SEE! You honestly expect me to believe that that doesn't warrant a trip to the hospital? What am I supposed to do? Just pretend that this isn't a problem and move on?" Lynn Sr. as he began to rise from his seat with fresh hot tears beginning to stream down his face.

The African-American EMT stood before him and said, "Now sir, please calm down and listen to me a for a second okay. For all we know this could just be a case of hysterical blindness. That the explosion may have scared him so bad that it took his sight away. If that's the case then he'll be fine when he relaxes for a bit and he lets the pain go down from his eyes."

Lynn Sr however was still shaking and had not calmed down one bit. The other EMT, Roger, grabbed Lynn's shoulder and made him turn his attention away.

"There's no need for that now sir. We understand that you're upset, heck Steve here is a dad himself and his kids have had scares like this themselves with their health. Best thing to do right now is wait and see what happens from here. We haven't found a reason to believe that his injuries are dangerous. Nor that he needs any extra medical attention," Roger explained as best he could.

It did seem to make Lynn calm down a little bit and he sat back down on the couch. He knew these two gentlemen were just doing their jobs as they were trained to do. But it still angered him to think that the situation possibly wasn't worse than how these two were making it out to be. The idea that his son, his ONLY son, was in a bind like this and that these medical workers were telling him all of this was enough to agitate him.

"So what if this isn't some small thing? What if this is something bigger than any of us expect? What am I supposed to do?" Lynn Sr said as he began to brush his tears from his eyes.

Before either of the two could answer, Rita decided to chime in with her answer.

"Honey I know a man in town named Dr. Alda who specializes in Optometry. We'll check on Lincoln in the morning and see how he is and if there's no change then we can take him to the doctor. Just remember that you're not the only one upset about this. I don't get angry with the paramedics to express my outrage," Rita said to her husband.

She could understand why her husband was so upset, quite frankly she was angry that the two men agreed that a hospital visit was unneeded. But she knew that they had a point and that it may be less serious than it actually looked. The men had a job to do and quite frankly they, the parents, had a duty to look after their family. She knew that he was upset, but he had to remain strong in case it really was the worst case scenario.

Lynn Sr. wiped the tears from his eyes and said, "You're right dear. Getting mad isn't going to help anything."

He looked back to the two men and said, "I'm deeply sorry for my behavior gentlemen. I'm just-"

Steve held his hand up and said, "Hey I completely understand sir, it happens all the time in these kinds of cases. For right now I would as your wife suggests. Let the boy get some rest and if his vision doesn't improve by morning, I'd take him to see the doctor."

With that, the two men began to pack up their equipment and proceeded to head out. As they did so, Rita pulled Lincoln close to her and kissed Lincoln on the side of the head. He grabbed her arm in response and snuggled into her embrace. Lynn looked back at the duo on the couch and watched as the two men departed the house with the two wishing them the best of luck. In short order, they could hear the sound of the ambulance starting up and driving away from the scene.

Rita looked back at her husband and asked him, "What are we going to tell the girls?"

Lynn sighed and said, "You let me worry about that. Why don't you just get Lincoln back up to bed? At the least we were able to get the heat back on in here, not that it was worth it though. I'd rather be caught in the cold right now than this."

Lincoln could hear was his dad was saying and was flabbergasted that his dad was beating himself up over it. What happened was just an accident. One that could have been prevented, but he knew that it was just an accident. But he knew that everyone makes mistakes, especially after he's made a few himself.

He tried to reach out to his dad and said, "Dad it was only an accident. It wasn't your fault."

Lynn knew what his son was thinking and even though he couldn't see it, Lynn Sr. shook his head anyway.

"No son it is. I forced you to help me fix the furnace and when you tried to tell me something was wrong, I wouldn't listen and instead kept trying to fiddle with it. I know I've made mistakes in the past, but this by far the worst I've made. At least my past mistakes never ended up injuring someone," Lynn Sr said and then buried his face in his hands.

Lincoln wanted to run out and hug his father. He couldn't see it, but he knew his father had been crying and was starting to cry again. He tried to reach out, but his mother pulled him back.

"Come on honey, let's just get you back to bed. We'll see about calling a doctor in town in the morning. Right now you need rest," Rita said and began to pull her son to the stairs.

Lincoln tried to get himself free from his mother's grasp and after a few tries, managed to work himself free.

"Mom I know this house like the back of my hand. I think I can find my room on my own," he said and began making his way to the stairs.

Or so he thought.

Instead he ended up walking towards the dining room. His mother tried to grab his hand to lead him in the right direction, but missed it by just a little bit as Lincoln put his hands out in front to try to find the wall. Instead he ended up walking right into the dining room table. Walking into the table caused a moment of confusion for Lincoln which is when Rita grabbed Lincoln's shoulders and turned him in the proper direction.

"Lincoln I know you want to be capable of this on your own, but this is new to you. Please just let me help you get upstairs. I don't want to see you get hurt even more tonight," Rita said to Lincoln with tears forming in her eyes and her voice beginning to break.

Lincoln could hear the hurt in her voice, something that was even rarer than his father crying. It really did hurt Lincoln to hear his mother sounding so upset, so instead of arguing with it he decided to let her help him. She turned him away from the table and began to lead him in the proper direction. As they slowly made their way up the stairs, Lynn sat back down on the couch and ran his hand through his hair.

"How am I going to explain this to the girls?" he asked himself with a groan.

* * *

Upstairs in Leni and Lori's room, things weren't much better. In the thirty minutes that had past since they had seen Lincoln's eyes, the girls had each left the living room and had gone back to their rooms. With the heat back on they had all tried to go back to sleep and hope for the best. But they each quickly found out that such a task was going to be impossible. Their worry had overpowered their need for sleep. Even Lola who constantly depended on her beauty sleep had found herself unwilling to get some shut eye, as long as she was unsure of what was going on with her big brother. Her ONLY brother.

So they had all gathered in Lori and Leni's room which is where they usually met when the siblings all had a universal problem. Right now though they were all being silent, but they could tell that they were all thinking the same thing. Lori was sitting in her bed, busy texting on her phone, replying to messages the second they popped up. Normally it'd be a happy affair for her, but with her eyes a little bloodshot and practically wide open with a couple of tears in them, it was obvious she was seeking comfort from her Boo-Boo Bear right now. Normally a happy affair for her, she was currently doing it to keep her mind occupied, but judging by how she looked it certainly wasn't helping. Leni had her head buried in her pillow and even though they were muffled, the rest of the girls could still hear her crying and could even see her body heaving with each sob.

Luna was sitting by herself and was humming familiar tunes to herself. She was staring off into space, not at anything in particular but at the wall. Lori could hear what Luna was humming and they sounded just like the lullabies that she used to sing to Lincoln when he was little. The two had always been close and Luna had frequently been there for Lincoln whenever he was feeling upset about something.

Luan was pretty much the same as Luna. She also shared a close bond with Lincoln, especially after the time that they made up after their little falling out regarding Luan's birthday entertainment business. The very thought that he might have been hurt or worse was weighing heavily upon her. Especailly since she had been part of the group to send him down to the basement in the first place.

Lynn Jr, the last of Lincoln's older sisters, sat on one of the beds and just kept tossing her baseball against the wall and catching it as it bounced back at her in one of the few times that no one was telling her stop. Apart from the tapping away on Lori's phone, it was the only sound in the room and for once no one seemed to be annoyed by it... for the most part.

As for the younger sisters, the reaction seemed a bit more mixed. Lucy just sat at the window, looking out at the emergency vehicles outside and even noticed that a few of the neighbors were looking out of their houses. She had already watched the cop car pull away and began focusing on the ambulance still parked outside. She hadn't uttered a single word or sigh.

The twins were being quiet in a rare moment for them. Lana was curled up on the floor, petting their dog, Charles', head as he let out an occasional whine. He didn't know what was going on, but could feel that something was wrong with how quiet everyone was being. Lola however was sitting cross armed with a scowl appearing on her face. She was sitting closest to where Lynn was tossing her ball and could hear and practically feel each thump that the ball made as it hit the wall. This combined with her losing sleep and few other factors were aggravating her nerves greatly. With each thump, her scowl increased.

Lisa however appeared to be reacting as she normally did. Silently reading a book and scribbling down notes. This actually surprised a lot of them seeing as they actually expected her to be a little freaked out, but instead here she was acting as emotionless and nonchalant as usual. Every time Lynn cast a look at her, she tossed her ball at the wall a little harder.

The only one missing from the room was baby Lily as she had slept through the whole ordeal downstairs and they hadn't wanted to wake her. They did check on her earlier to make sure that she wasn't being affected by the cold. And now that the house was starting to feel warm again it was one less worry for them to deal with. It didn't make what they were feeling any better though.

Lynn kept thumping her ball against the wall as she took another glance at Lisa. At this point she had done so much that she was beginning to grit her teeth. She tossed the ball a little harder than usual and began to do it at a much faster pace. Each thump began echoing themselves around the room and even made one or two of the other girls turn their heads towards her. Not out of annoyance, but instead more out of concern. Lynn never tossed her ball against the wall like this except when she was feeling angry. Then finally she threw the ball at different angle as she shifted her position that instead of bouncing back at her, it bounced towards Lola's head.

"AHH!" Lola shouted out as the ball connected with her head and knocked her over. She stood back up yelled, "LYNN!"

Lynn turned her head towards the screeching six year old with a glare and said, "What?"

Lola stood up with a growl with Lynn's baseball in hand. "Your stupid baseball just hit me in the head!" Lola expressed angrily.

Lynn merely just led back on the bed and said, "Pfft. Well you should watch where you're sitting. You knew what I've been doing this entire time."

Lola just let out another screech with a look that could kill. As she tried to rush Lynn, Lana grabbed Lola around her waist to hold her back. Lola took no notice as she still tried to rush Lynn with her feet scrapping the ground. Even with Lana's efforts, Lola still managed to find some traction on the ground as Lola still managed to make some ground towards Lynn who was still lying back on the bed without any concern about Lola.

"Whoa there Poncho. Pull it back some," Lana said as Lola slowly dragged her along.

Lori groaned angrily as she set her phone down, turned towards the three of them and said, "Will the three of you be quiet? You're literally driving me mad with your noise."

Lynn sat up in the bed and said, "That's a lot coming from you Miss Tapsawayonherphonealot. You haven't stopped since we got up here."

"AND YOU'VE BEEN BOUNCING YOUR STUPID BALL AGAINST THE WALL!" Lola screeched as she still tried to reach for Lynn.

Lynn began to grit her teeth again and said, "The only reason I was doing that is because there's nothing else to do. Especially with little miss genius over there getting on my nerves."

Lisa overheard Lynn's words and she looked up at the jock with her usual stare and said, "And what pray tell have I been doing to anger you? Sitting quietly? Keeping to myself? Trying to keep my brain stimulated during a prime oppurtunity?"

For Lynn this was reaching her breaking point. It was one thing for Lisa to not show any concern, but when she couldn't even figure out why Lynn was upset with her or why anyone would be upset with her right now. She was supposed to be the family's resident genius and she seriously couldn't figure out why Lynn was upset? What kind of genius was she?

Lynn shot a death stare at Lisa and said, "You know why. You saw what we all saw downstairs. Can you honestly sit there and not feel a thing for what's going on?"

Lisa let out and breath and solemnly closed her book. She shot her own angry look towards Lynn and said, "It'll pass. He's had worse in the past. Simple first degree burns to the face is nothing compared to getting trampled on a regular basis. Something even I will admit to being guilty of. I'm honestly surprised that he hasn't broken any bones yet."

Lori began to understand what Lynn was talking about as she had shot her own occasional glances towards Lisa as well. Just sitting there, acting like nothing was going on when they all knew that plenty was happening right now. It was enough to make her feel a little annoyance towards the second youngest of the family. Still the two of them bickering with each other was not going to make any of them feel any better. If anything it was having the exact opposite effect right now. Just as Lola was about to reach Lynn, the jock merely sat up and placed her hand on Lola's head, effectively holding her back.

Lori wasn't the only feeling frustrated from the argument going on right now. Luna was still sitting against the wall trying to hum to herself as the girls began to raise their voices. As the volume from their mouths grew, so did her humming. Even began turning her head away from the rest as they began getting physical. Luan saw what Luna was doing and began shuffling away from her.

Lori got up from her spot and quickly put herself between Lynn and Lola and began pushing the both of them away from each other.

"That is enough you two. Look we're all upset about what happened to Lincoln, but getting hostile about it isn't going to help," Lori said while trying to keep the two apart.

"Oh that's a lot coming from you Lori," came Luna's voice.

Everyone quickly turned their heads towards Luna, only to see that their musician sister was up on her feet with a not-at-all happy expression on her face as she stared at Lori. Luna mainly tried to stay out of the fights with her other sisters, but there were times where she could be pushed too far. This time it wasn't just their bickering that was bothering her, but how Lisa was being casual about things and how Lori was being hypocritical in her eyes.

Lori stared right back and said, "What? What is that supposed to mean?"

Luna crossed her arms and aggresivly added, "Oh you know what I'm talking about. You just couldn't leave Lincoln alone and had to get him in trouble as well. He didn't even do anything bad and you couldn't handle that."

"He woke all of us up. We'd still be asleep if he hadn't," Lola added.

At this point, even Lucy had turned her attention to the fighting going on in the room. Lola was currently trying to break from Lori's grip and was still trying to reach Lynn and Lynn was merely smirking in triumph at Lola. All the while, Lori and Luna were staring each other down while everyone else was trying to avoid getting involved in the argument. Normally Lucy would be enthralled by such a fiasco, but currently was not feeling it.

Lori nodded as Lola spoke and added, "And it was freezing in the house. Someone had to turn the heat back on. How was I supposed to know it'd go so bad."

Lucy had finally heard enough and piped up and said, "I'd rather be sleeping in the cold than see what I saw. I've never seen anyone's eyes like that before."

As usual, no one really noticed what Lucy had to say and instead the fight continued.

"Look we all voted and we voted for Lincoln. It sucks what happened, but it could have been anyone," Lynn added in.

This only seemed to make Luna angrier as steam began to rise off of the top of her head. The girls had seen Luna mad in the past, especially during the time with the family band when she had gone nuts with trying to make the band sound perfect. But the way she looked and felt now made that look like simple annoyance.

"Excuse you? We voted? Not me, I don't remember voting. Leni and I were the only ones who didn't vote. The rest of you ganged up on him and forced things against him and used dad to make it happen. You all acted like cowards and then this happened to him. So you're going say were all responsible? Well not all of us are cowardly and care only for ourselves," Luna fired back at Lynn and Lori both. She even cast a glare at Lola to solidify her point.

That was it. One moment the girls were simply having an argument, but now Lori, Lola and Lynn had pounced on Luna with a resulting cloud of dust forming around them. The rest of the sisters backed as far away as they could as the girls went at it. Lana had backed into a corner with Luan while Lucy still sat by the window and watched as the ambulance outside was leaving with just the two paramedics and no Lincoln. Lisa was wide eyed as she watched the scene and slowly brought the book back up to her eyes. Out of sight, out of mind.

The girls continued fighting with smacking, hair pulling, scratching and even biting. The fight went on for a few moments with everyone either just watching or being involved in the fight. This went on, until finally they all heard someone yell at the top of their lungs, "STOP!"

With that, the dust cloud disappeared and the four fighting sisters ceased their fued and everyone turned their heads to source of the voice. To their shock, it was Leni who had screamed out loud at them. Tears were still running down from her eyes as she wiped them away. The four fighting girls each let go of each other and stood back at attention.

Leni finished wiping the tears from her eyes and said, "Look none of us are responsible for Linky getting hurt. None of us knew what was going to happen. Yes some of us sent him down there, but just as Lori said it could have happened to anyone. We're all upset, but arguing about it isn't going to help anything."

 **(AN: Am I the only one who has noticed that when it comes to worrying about family, Leni usually shows a lot of intelligence?)**

The four girls who had been fighting all looked at each other and they quickly realized that Leni was right. The four of them all rubbed the backs of their heads as a knock came from their door.

"Girls I heard fighting in there. What's going on?" came their father's voice.

He opened the door and gave each of them a look of disapproval. He hated it when the kids fought as it just made things a little harder around the house. Especially now with Lincoln's new condition.

Leni held up her hands and said, "It's okay dad. Everything's been settled."

Lynn Sr rubbed his eyes with a yawn and then said, "It better be. It's late and we should all be getting back to bed, so no more fights."

"But what about Lincoln?" Lynn Jr asked.

Their father groaned and began to rub his eyes again. This was followed by him rubbing his hand against his forehead. Clearly he was not comfortable with discussing this right now and the girls could understand, but it was something that he believed they had the right to know so there was no use in saving.

He let out a sigh and said, "Well as I'm sure you girls can already tell, your brother can't see right now. The paramedics that were here flushed his eyes and says he should be better by morning. But if he's not, we'll have to take him to the doctor."

The girls heard what their father was saying and they began to let it sink in. Some of them felt a little relief since it could have been something minor. But at the same time there was still a sense of dread in knowing that that may not be the case.

"Now there's not much else we can do tonight. So please girls, no more fighting tonight and lets all just get back to bed," their father instructed.

The girls did as their father instructed and filed out of the room with the exception of Lori and Leni. The two sat back down on their beds with Lori lying back and quickly going back to sleep, albeit it not a pleasant one. Leni however just lied there and stared at the wall for a moment before turning over and staring out the window. She could hear the wind still whistling through the air outside as it blew a small bit of snow from the roof.

"Please be okay Linky," she whispered quietly as she closed her eyes.

* * *

In the meantime, the other girls shuffled into each of their rooms as their father went back downstairs. Luna and Luan's room was just across the hall from Leni and Lori's room so they had the shortest distance to travel. Whereas Lola, Lana, and Lisa had the farthest to travel since their rooms were at the end of the hall. Between the room of Luna and Luan as well as the room of Lola and Lana sat the room of Lucy and Lynn, giving the two of them a spot in between.

Lucy went in first and Lynn was about to follow. But as she stood in the doorway, she decided to cast a quick glance back at the door that led to Lincoln's room. She couldn't even begin to understand what he was currently feeling and she wasn't going to try to pretend to either. She couldn't help but worry about him right now. Even if the two of them didn't really get along very well, she still viewed him as one of the few people she could confide in. He was her little brother after all. She figured the best thing to do right now was to be his big sister.

She looked back into the room she shared with Lucy and said, "Hey Luce?"

Lucy looked at her and Lynn continued by saying, "I'm going to check on Lincoln real quick."

"But dad said-," Lucy started but was quickly interrupted.

"I know what dad said, but I still feel that I should make sure he's okay. He'd do the same for us if what happened to him had happened to us," Lynn said with genuine concern in her voice.

Lucy heard what Lynn was saying and knew that Lynn had a point. While Lincoln had plenty of selfish moments, like the time he embarrassed all of them on the internet all to win a trophy or when he bought a pool all for himself. But despite all of that, he usually ended up putting his sisters before himself in the end. With a slight smile, Lucy nodded and turned over to go back to sleep.

Lynn quietly closed the door and made her way to the end of the hall where Lincoln slept. She stood in front of the door and took a deep breath as she prepared to knock. What exactly was she doing anyway? How would Lincoln react to her waking him? How was he feeling in his current condition? Did he blame her for what happened to him? Was he mad? Scared? She didn't know and not knowing was making her mind go crazy. Before she even realized it, her knuckles were gently knocking against the wood of his door. This was followed by a groan from within and the sound of someone shuffling across the floor. A second later, the door opened just a crack and Lynn got her first look at Lincoln.

He had turned on his bedroom light and she could see him quite clearly. The white bandage wrapped around his eyes was quite obvious, but it contrasted with the redness on his face as it surrounded the bandage and met his white hair. It was enough to make Lynn gulp as guilt began to wash over her.

"Hello? Who's there?" Lincoln quietly asked.

Lynn was a bit hesitant at first. She didn't want to see Lincoln like this, with his burned face and a bandage reminding her that he couldn't even see her right now. To tell the truth, part of her was glad that Lincoln couldn't see her right now. She was usually the toughest member of the family, she really didn't want Lincoln to see the worried expression on her face right now.

"Is someone there? Or is this some sick joke, because I'm not laughing," Lincoln continued with annoyance in his voice.

Lynn knew that she couldn't put it off anymore and said, "It's just me Lincoln."

Lincoln heard her speak and said, "Lynn? What are you doing here?"

Lynn paused for a moment and wasn't quite sure how to respond initially. So she figured it'd be best to explain what she truly felt.

"Well to tell you the truth Lincoln, I came to see how you were feeling," she said truthfully.

Lincoln frowned and said, "How do you think I'm feeling right now? Isn't it obvious?" He tapped the bandage on his head to emphasize his point.

Lynn inhaled sharply and said, "Yeah I know about that. I just wanted to see how you were actually feeling right now. Are you feeling alright given what's happened?"

Lincoln groaned and said, "You can call it what it is Lynn. I'm blind, how do you think I feel right now?"

"Does it still hurt?" Lynn asked.

Lincoln shook his head and said, "Not like earlier. Why do you care anyway? I thought you'd be asleep right now."

Lynn didn't answer his question with a response. Instead she wrapped her arms around him gently and held him as close as she could. Lincoln was initially surprised by her action and didn't feel comfortable with it, but instead of pushing her he simply wrapped his arms around her as well. It was rare when Lynn showed this kind of affection, especially towards him. But when she did, it always felt great.

"Lynn? Do you think you could stay with me tonight?" Lincoln asked her.

Lynn was a bit surprised by Lincoln's question herself. She could recall the time that she had been Lincoln's roommate and how annoyed he had been with her. Sure she did some of it simply to annoy him, but she really was touched when he let her stay.

"Huh? Why do you want me to stay here?" she asked.

Lincoln shrugged as he broke from their hug and said, "I don't know. Guess I just need some familiar sounds right now."

He didn't want her to know that he was scared of being left alone in a world of darkness and needed someone to hold onto as he tried to adjust to this. There's no way he'd live it down if that were to get out. Besides he was partially telling the truth. After what happened tonight, even Lynn's snores sounded good to him. With a second hug from Lynn, he was sure he had his answer.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll keep an eye on you," Lynn said as she walked past him into the room.

As she settled on the bed, Lincoln closed the door and said, "Just NO and I mean NO Dutch Ovens."

* * *

 **So in the first chapter I noticed some of the comments said that the first chapter was a little too short. I looked back at it and you know what? I agree. This is actually the longest chapter that I have ever written at over 6000 words. This was a monumental task for me and I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as the first chapter.**

 **I know that the story seems to be progressing a bit slowly, but that's kinda how I want this story to progress. I'm doing my best to make sure I get how the girls would feel in a circumstance like this. Not to mention I REALLY wanted Lynn to have a nice moment with her brother.**

 **She needs some serious redemption after No Such Luck. An episode I shall not talk ever again.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Just got off a seven day work stretch as of writing this header and it was a hot and humid week too, not the easiest time to work. Suffice it to say, it's been a stressful time lately. Honestly speaking though writing normally tends to be a good stress reliever for me, but then when your energy crashes it becomes a chore to will yourself to do so. However a little rock and roll and a funny movie playing as background noise does help.**

 **As for the MASH Easter egg from last chapter, I'm going to add to it a little bit here. I'll explain it in due time and will roll with it a bit more in the next chapter.**

 **Now I know a few areas in this chapter are going to sound a little awkward and I couldn't blame ya for that, but I do promise you that I will be keeping this story clean.**

 **Once again I do thank everyone for all the faves and for all of the reviews and advice. I will be trying my best with this story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House. Did get a thumbs up from the creator on a Facebook comment once. No seriously, I did.**

* * *

Darkness was all that was around him as he found himself stumbling around through a dark abyss. He called out into the void multiple times, hoping that someone would respond to him. He called out to his parents, his sisters, his friends, or just anybody in general. Even the voice of someone he didn't know would sound much more appealing than just hearing nothing around him. But each time he called out, he was met only with silence. Like he was trapped in the darkness. All alone with no one to guide him. No one to protect him.

He shivered as the cold covered his form as the darkness took hold of him. No matter where he turned, there was just another endless void of inky blackness ahead of him. Lucy would be right at home in a place like this, but for Lincoln it was horror unimaginable. To be lost where no one could see him or find him and with no noise but his own voice echoing back to was something far too horrible for him to imagine.

He would walk forward a bit, stumbling as he did so, and he would walk until he hit what felt like a wall. As he'd hit the wall, he'd turn away to another direction and the process would just repeat itself, over and over and over again. It was becoming too much for him. The darkness, the silence, the solitude and now the lack of space was becoming too much for him to take. But what came next, was the nail in the coffin for him.

He hit another wall and turned back the way he had come from, but had only taken a few steps when he hit another wall. How could this be? The walk to the previous wall hadn't been this short. He stretched his right hand to the side and it hit another wall as well. Panic was beginning to set in now as he turned in the one direction he hadn't checked yet and took only a couple of steps when he hit yet another wall. As if being alone in the dark and silence wasn't bad enough, he had another problem. The room he had to move around was getting smaller and smaller. He could feel the walls moving now as he pressed against them, making the space smaller and smaller. Then he felt something grab him and begin to pull him elsewhere.

It was here where he finally let out a scream that the darkness swallowed up.

* * *

Lynn was sleeping peacefully in the bed next to Lincoln, having agreed with his request to not pull any pranks on him that night. A couple of hours had passed since then and she and everyone else were sleeping much easier now that the house was heated once again. She felt better now not just because it was warm in the house was heated again, but she was happy that Lincoln let her stay the night. She felt better now, knowing that he was doing okay for now. She was even able to refrain from snoring in his ear, making sleep much more peaceful for the both of them.

But as she slept into the early morning hours, she could hear Lincoln was starting to get a bit more agitated in his sleep. Lynn opened up one of her eyea and looked at him as he began to toss a little bit.

'He must be dreaming,' she thought to herself and tried to go back to sleep herself.

A minute later though, she could hear him beginning to whine a little bit. This time she opened both of her eyes and even sat up in the bed a little bit to get a better view. He was beginning to toss and turn a little bit more then previously as he whined a little louder than earlier. He then began naming of each of their sisters off one by one, including her, and was even asking for them to help him.

His breathing was starting to become heavy and laborious, almost like he wasn't able to breath. A sign that whatever he was dreaming of, it was truly terrifying him. He began to toss a bit more and his voice began to rise a bit. Lynn couldn't handle it and she quickly grabbed Lincoln's shoulders as she got on her knees and tried to shake him awake.

"Lincoln. LINCOLN!" she shouted as she tried to wake him up. "Wake up!"

She tried to keep her volume as low as she could, however she could hear Lola growling next door because of how thin the walls were, indicating that at least one person had been woken up by her. She could feel Lincoln beginning to wake up and with a moment of quick thinking, she placed one of her hands over Lincoln's mouth just as he began to scream. As a result his scream had been muffled and the only person bothered by it was Lynn. Once a night was enough for the family, they didn't need to go through this a second time.

Lincoln panicked for a moment as he awoke as he still found himself in darkness. As he stopped flailing his arms about he tried to look around his room, but the look of fear remained etched on his face.

"W-where am I? Where's my room? Where's anything?" he said with a whimper as he began to panic again.

This time Lynn grabbed his wrists to prevent him from flailing his arms about and possibly hurting her or himself. She struggled against his attempts to panic, but she had been in this situation many times when her teammates were hurt during practice. It was something she had to learn to do as captain of each of her teams. As such, she was accustomed to this kind of behavior and she knew exactly how to approach it.

"Lincoln! Calm down. It was just a nightmare. You're safe in your room. You're okay," Lynn said as she struggled against her brother's struggling.

The sound of Lynn's voice seemed to do the trick as Lincoln's struggle began to lessen and his breathing began to return to normal. As his struggles died down, Lynn released her grip on him and let him reach out to her and grip her arm tightly.

"Lynn? What's going on? I can't see where I am. Why can't I see?" Lincoln said as he gripped Lynn's arm.

Lynn grabbed his hand and had him loosen his grip on her.

"Lincoln it's okay, you're okay. You had an accident with dad earlier, remember? Some medics bandaged your eyes to help them recover," she said as Lincoln began to relax.

Lincoln absorbed her words and began to think. As she explained what had happened to him, he began to recall the things she was saying. And sure enough he did remember what had happened and was relieved to know that he was safe at home, but deep down he had wished that everything had simply been a bad dream as he had previously thought when he slept. But as he reached up and touched the bandage around his eyes, his freshened mood began to sour once again. He groaned and lied back down in his bed.

"I think I was better off in the nightmare," he said as he turned over.

Lynn looked him over and asked, "What happened to you in your dream?"

Lincoln groaned again and turned back to her and began explaining what had happened. Being trapped in the darkness all alone without any sign of the rest of the family. The only sound he could hear was his own voice, not even his own footsteps had echoed. What finally got to him however was the space becoming smaller and smaller, making it feel like there had been less air in the room. It made him wonder if that's what his future held for him. Being lost in the darkness without his vision.

Lynn could sense what he was feeling and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Linc, just relax. Dad told us what the medics said. If it's true what they said, then this might only be temporary. They said it might only be from shock, if it is then things should be normal by morning," Lynn said and patted Lincoln's back. "Chin up bro, just think of the positive."

Lincoln still didn't feel much better and he simply asked, "But what happens if I still can't see in the morning? What happens then?"

"Then knowing mom and dad, we'll go to see a doctor. Mom does know a lot of doctors in this town, she should know someone who can help or can at least try," Lynn said. She glanced up at the clock above Lincoln's bed and said, "It's already four in the morning. We should get back to sleep and worry about this when we have to."

Lincoln huffed. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to worry about this," he said and pointed at his eyes.

Lynn really wanted to grab and her pillow and clobber him with it in retaliation but striking a blind person, even if it was her brother, was far beneath her. Instead she chose to ignore his comment and lied back down to sleep. Lincoln followed suit and turned away from her.

But before he could drift off to sleep he could hear Lynn say, "Goodnight Lincoln."

Lincoln turned slightly back to her and said, "Goodnight."

* * *

A couple of hours passed and morning came. The sun peaked over the horizon at the icy landscape of the town of Royal Woods as the morning light shimmered against the icy backdrop. A cold wind was still blowing through the area, making the outdoor temperature feel much colder than it was supposed to be. The light dusting of snow still blew around like leaves in an autumn wind. Anyone seen outdoors would wrap their winter coats around them more tightly to keep the cold wind off of their skin.

Back at the big house on Franklin Avenue, the house began to stir. Though unlike most mornings, it didn't start off with the family being noisy and potentially disturbing and waking the entire neighborhood. Instead, things were quiet for once. Some of the neighbors were quite thankful for this while a few others were a bit concerned, especially after seeing the emergency vehicles outside the night before. For all they knew and knowing the family itself, anything could be going on in there right now.

Inside, the family stirred slowly and quietly with each of the children of the family slowly and quietly waking up, many of whom were a still bit shaken up about the events of the night before. Some were dressed, others were still dressed in their night clothes. They slowly shuffled downstairs with the exception of Lucy, who instead woke up to an empty room. She awoke more slowly than the rest as she was certainly not a morning person, prefering the darkness of the night. But as such she couldn't quite be a night owl at her young age so she had no choice but to awaken in the morning. As she raised her head and looked over at Lynn's bed, she was actually kind of shocked to see that it was empty. If there was anyone else in the family who was not a morning person, it was Lynn who liked to sleep in a bit more to help rebuild her energy for her many sporting events.

This made Lucy curious. The last time she had seen Lynn was when they had all been heading back to bed the night before and Lynn had said she was going to check on Lincoln. But she couldn't remember Lynn returning afterwards, so it naturally made her curious. After having dressed for the day, she stepped out of the room and looked down the hall to Lincoln's bedroom door. She quietly as a mouse walked to the door and took a quick peek inside. She looked in to see both Lynn and Lincoln were still asleep inside. Lucy wanted to feel surprised that Lynn had stayed with him, but truth be told it's what she was expecting after Lynn had gone to check on him.

Lynn and Lincoln's relationship with each other was a bit complicated and Lucy knew that. The two did spar with each quite a bit, usually because Lynn would force him to try to fight with Lynn always being the winner. But through her constant spying, she knew that Lynn only wanted him to learn from her. Learn how to be tough, how to look after himself. Usually she was the one bailing him out of trouble with bullies and she couldn't always be there to protect him. He needed to learn to take care of himself, but now it looks like all of that would change if what Lucy was dreading was true.

Lynn began to stir, followed quickly by Lincoln as they yawned and Lynn was staring to get up. Lucy wasted no time in closing the door and making her way downstairs before either of them could notice.

* * *

A few minutes passed and everyone was sitting down at the breakfast table and ate the eggs and bacon that their father had made for them in nearly total silence. A couple of the members of the family were trying to keep things feeling like normal, like Luan trying to tell some of her usual jokes or Lori trying to chat with friends on her phone. But even with these normal activities, it was clear that there was an underlying emotion to them. Luan wasn't laughing at her jokes and it almost looked like she was trying to force her smile and Lori wasn't chatting with her usual enthusiasm. Some of them tried to pretend like nothing was wrong, but couldn't shake the feelings that they were all having right now.

All that is, with the exception of baby Lily who had do idea what was going on and probably wouldn't understand it if she knew what was happening anyway. And then there was Lisa who still believed that everyone was having an overreaction to the whole situation. So Lincoln had an accident, so what? It wasn't the first time he had hurt himself and it most likely wouldn't be the last either. Though she had to admit that this type of accident did lead to a more serious injury than usual for her brother, but she decided that she'd rather wait and see how his vision would turn out in the morning before deciding if it was something to be concerned over. All she had to do was wait for Lincoln to come down from bed before examining his eyes and seeing them for herself and only then could she judge for herself.

Lucy joined the family, situating herself between Luan and Lana as their father served some eggs onto her plate. Their father in the meantime would occasionally take glances up the staircase to see if Lincoln was coming down or not. He knew the boy still wanted to be capable of taking care of himself during this time, but it didn't help reduce his nerves in any way. As she glanced at him, Lucy could tell that her father still felt guilty for the previous night's events, even though they had all assured him that what happened wasn't his fault. He still blamed himself regardless.

He looked at the clock and said, "It's almost eight. Someone should go and wake him up."

He took a quick glance around the table and added, "And where's Jr?"

Lucy munched on her eggs and said silently, "She stayed with Lincoln last night."

"What was that?" Luan asked from beside her.

Lucy had just taken another bite and was already chewing when Luan asked her, causing her to gulp down her bite of egg. Of course, of all the times that someone paid attention to what she had to say and it had to be when she mentioned Lynn staying with Lincoln, worse yet she knew the reason why was because she had been worried about him. Lucy knew that Lynn wouldn't want anyone to know that and now that she had practically let the cat out of the bag there was no doubt they would pry.

"I didn't say anything," Lucy answered in her usual monotone hoping that someone would buy it.

Luan however shook her head with a frown and said, "Yes you did. You said Lynn stayed with Lincoln overnight. Why would she do that? You kick her out again?"

'Crap!' Lucy said in her head as the rest of the family took notice.

Luan hearing her was bad enough as it was since she was now already prying into things. But now that the rest of the family had taken notice and they were all beginning to ask as well, she felt like slinking back down and simply blink out of existence. Thankfully everything was interrupted as she heard some steady footsteps come down the stairs and towards the breakfast table. She wasn't the only one as some of the girls turned their attention towards the doorway and they saw Lincoln walking in with Lynn guiding him over to an empty chair. She pulled the chair out and helped him take a seat.

"Morning everyone," Lynn said a little cheerfully as she took her own seat between him and Luan.

This was a surprise for everyone. Given the circumstances of Lincoln's condition and Lynn's adittude the night before, they figured she'd be completely agitated right now. She was one of the heaviest affected by Lincoln's accident, second only to Luna. But now it looked as if last night hadn't happened, even though Lincoln still wore his telltale bandage over his eyes.

"Lynn? Are you feeling okay?" Lana asked from her seat.

Lynn looked to the messy twin and figured what everyone was thinking. She knew how she acted last night, especially towards Lisa, something that she did not feel sorry about. After looking out for him overnight and making sure that he was going to be okay, it gave her peace of mind. Whether he could see or not, he was still the little brother she knew and loved. She'd be with him every step of the way if her worst fears were confirmed.

Lynn looked back at Lana and said, "I'm doing okay now. I guess I just... lost my cool last night."

"Lost a bit more than that," Lola said under her breath and turned away from the jock.

Luna decided to add her two cents and asked, "Dude you were so mad last night but this morning you're all chipper? _I Don't Get It._ "

Lynn shrugged and said, "Well I got worried about Lincoln so I kind of stayed with him for the rest of the night. Just to make sure he was alright."

Lincoln began to blush at the thought that Lynn had pretty much just blabbed that he needed someone to look after him the night before. But his emberassment deepened when all of his sisters began to go, "Aww."

"Just like when the two of you were little," Lori said and began to laugh and text more rapidly then earlier.

That's when everyone began exchanging memories of Lincoln and Lynn from when they were smaller. Lincoln should have felt embarassed from the stories they were sharing, but to his surprise, he actually wasn't. If anything, listening to their stories only reminded him of his earlier years. Back when he and Lynn were a lot closer, when Lori was nicer to him.

When he could see.

His father cleared his throat and said, "Morning Jr. Morning... son."

Lincoln could hear his father gulp a little bit and he could practically sense that his father was beginning to break out in a cold sweat as he placed some breakfast on Lynn's plate. Lincoln understood why too and just like everyone else, he didn't blame his father and just wanted to tell him that what happened had simply been an accident. If anything, Lincoln blamed their faulty furnace for what had happened. But he knew his father wasn't really in the mood to really listen right now and knew it'd be better when he was feeling calmer.

"Care for some breakfast? I made eggs, but Lynn just took the last of the bacon," his father asked rather shakily.

As if on cue, Lynn who had been chewing on the bacon she had received, went wide eyed at the sudden realization. Here she was eating the last of the already made bacon and hadn't thought of asking Lincoln if he'd like it instead.

I"f you'd like some, I can fry some up really quickly. It'd be no problem," his father said as he tried to keep himself from frowning.

Lincoln nodded his head and said, "Sure. That sounds good dad."

Lynn Sr. listened to Lincoln's response and went off to do just that. But before Lincoln could begin eating his mother, who had been in the living room making a couple of calls, walked in and placed her hand on Lincoln's shoulder and made him turn his head towards her.

"Hold on just a second honey, we should really check your eyes first. I just called Dr. Alda to set up an appointment and he wants to make sure it's not from shock first. And Alan is not a man who likes to be kept waiting," Rita said to Lincoln.

Lincoln knew that this was coming and he really wanted to know the truth. He had just hoped that they could have waited a little bit longer, at the very least to get some more sympathy from his sisters. Not only that, but he felt a lot tension coursing through his body as his mother gently grabbed the end of the bandage and carefully untucked it. He could sense movement around the table as the rest of the family at the table began to gather around him to see how he looked. Rita unwound the bandage around his head carefully, but before she removed it entirely she had Lincoln cover his eyes with his hands.

The girls were all observing in silence. The usually noisy crowd were now being as silent as church mice as they waited for their mother to unveil his eyes. They watched as she slowly and carefully unwound the several layer bandage from around their brother's eyes. She made him tilt his head back and also had him cover his eyes.

They waited as their mother reached underneath his hand to pull out the pads from over his eyes, the room remaining silent the entire time. You could even hear a pin drop. Even as their father prepared to reenter the room with the freshly cooked bacon, he saw what was going on and quietly approached the scene. He watched as his wife set the pads that had been covering Lincoln's eyes on the table.

"Okay now open your eyes slowly and let me see them," she said and Lincoln nodded.

He did just as she instructed and opened his eyes slowly. As he did, she made him move his hand away from his eyes so that she could get a better look at them. As he creaked his eyes open, Rita's hopes raised slightly as she watched him blink a time or two. But as opened them fully and looked at where his mother was, her hopes were quickly dashed.

The girls could see the look on their mother's face as she had gained a little hope as their brother had moved his hand away and this resulted in the girls getting their hopes as well. A smirk had even been forming on Lisa's face as was ready to say to the rest of her siblings, "I told you so." But just as things seemed to be good, they watched as their mother's face fell and she began to frown again. Even as Lincoln started reaching out to their mother again, they knew their worst fears could be confirmed. Their potential good moods began to diminish, even Lisa's smirk had faded and a look of worry even began to cross her face.

Rita sighed and pulled Lincoln into a hug and then kissed the top of his forehead..

"It's okay sweetie. We'll go and see Dr. Alda today and we'll try to see what we can do from here," Rita said and then she reapplied the pads and bandages to Lincoln's eyes. It was a good thing that Lincoln couldn't see, because even he would be crushed to see the tears beginning to stream from his mother's eyes.

Lincoln sighed and said, "It's okay mom. At least now we know."

Rita knew Lincoln was trying to cheer her up, but sadly it wasn't helping very much. She still held her son in her arms and even rubbed his shoulder and rested her chin on the top of his head. Lynn was sitting next to Lincoln and she couldn't bear the site anymore. She joined her mother in the hug and was soon followed by their father and Luan. Next thing Lincoln knew, he heard the sound of the chairs creaking as their occupants stood up from their seats and joined in on the group hug.

Normally, Lincoln wasn't fond of his families group hugs as they normally felt like the girls were crushing his body. But right now without his vision, it just felt good to know that his family was there for him. It felt nothing at all like the nightmare he had the night before. He felt himself just melting into the family's one big embrace and a strange sense of comfort came over him. Even the sound of Lily's giggles sounded good to him right now.

* * *

 **So I was planning to do a little bit more with this chapter, but I decided everything else I had planned for this chapter would fit better in the next one.**

 **As for Luna's song reference I decided to go in the obscure route. The song I Don't Get It is a blues song from an 80's indie rock band called Cowboy Junkies. It's an interesting song that I think deserves a little more love. Check it out for yourself.**

 **Next chapter is a visit to the doctor. Maybe then we can get a prognosis for Lincoln and see how he'll turn out.**


	4. Chapter 4

**So I actually got a PM asking me if I would do a story involving an alternate version of No Such Luck. I gave them an answer and to prevent from being asked again in the future, I'm going to address it here. No I am not. I had considered it at one point, but no good plot ideas came to me and decided to let the thought die. Besides, there are already plenty of decent stories that address that episode as well as Brawl in the Family. I'm not touching those episodes, I'm just done with them and as far as I'm concerned, they're not canon.**

 **Sorry for the little rant, I just wanted to let everyone know that I will not be writing stories for those episodes. A couple of other disliked episodes I might, but not these two. I'm just done with them.**

 **Now to address some comments on how Lincoln seems to be taking things well. Just remember that he's JUST gone blind and is viewing it lightly (no pun intended), but in due time the seriousness of his situation will hit.**

 **Now onto the story, cause I don't want to spend my entire day ranting.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House.**

* * *

A couple of hours had passed since breakfast and things had settled back into their normal routine. Normal enough that is, because someone always had to be keeping an eye on Lincoln at all times. He still wasn't getting used to his malady and every time he stood up from wherever he had been sitting, at least one of his family members, usually either his mother or Leni, would get up with him to help him along to make sure that he didn't walk into a wall or step on anything that was sitting on the floor.

Rita had informed him that the appointment with Dr. Alda had been scheduled for ten that morning and here he was trying to pass the time as best he could. Right now he was sitting with Luna on the couch and just listening to an old rock and roll video from a band he couldn't quite recall. He couldn't watch it, but it was something to listen to at the very least. He'd feel better if Luna would just say something to him but every time he tried to ask her something, she'd just treat him with silence. Right now she was strumming her guitar as the rock program continued.

Normally to pass the time he liked to read his comic books, but that was impossible right now. Nor could he play his video games, one of the few things that brought him the most joy. He had tried to view his current condition as a simple inconvenience, something that would pass and would go back to normal, but now he was beginning to worry. He hoped that what the paramedics had said was true, that it was caused by hysteria and would be back to normal by morning. Clearly though that wasn't the case.

Right now he was hoping that the doctor would have an answer for his condition, but what if he didn't have any? What if the doctor told him that the condition was permanent and couldn't be fixed? What if he couldn't partake in any of his favorite past times ever again? How would he react? How would his family react? What about Clyde, how would he handle knowing that his best friend would no longer be able to see or do the things they had always loved to do together. Like playing at the arcade or making their own comic books. That was another thing that Lincoln had a hard time handling.

Ever since the time he and Clyde had made their own Ace Savvy comic, he had found himself getting more and more interested in making his own comic books. He had dabbled in it from time to time and had been planning to finish his next comic soon. He'd meant to tell his sisters about it since it involved the characters he had created based off of each of them, but now he'd have to put it on hold either temporarily or indefinetly. He was hoping that it would only be the former and not the latter.

Lincoln was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of keys jingling and he gave a startled gasp as he felt someone's hand come to rest on one his shoulders. He reached up and grabbed the hand as it grasped his. He could feel the longer fingernails upon it and some rougher skin, indicating that it was his mother's hand that he was grasping.

"Come on, sweetie we have to go. We have to be at the doctor in half an hour and remember, Dr. Alda doesn't like to be kept waiting," she said and Lincoln began to loosen his grip on her hand.

He nodded and said, "Yes mom. Let me get my coat."

He didn't have to bother fetching it though as his mother had already brought his coat over to him. It was still incredibly cold today, even a regular coat would have a hard time blocking out the chilled winter air. She helped him up from the couch and assisted him with pulling his coat on, ignoring his protests regarding her assistance. Saying that he could get it himself.

Luna watched from the couch, as did Lana from the kitchen doorway, Leni from the top of the stairs, even Lucy from the vents. The rest of the family, with the exception of Lynn Sr, Lily, and Lola were currently out of the house.

Lori was currently at work at Gus' Games and Grub despite her reluctance to go while Luan had a birthday party to entertain. A party that was thankfully indoors and required a dramatic performance, perfect for what she was feeling right now. She had wanted to cancel it but Lincoln convinced her to do it anyway, believing it would be a good distraction for her right now. Lynn had hockey practice which Lincoln felt was pretty ironic with the frigid day, unless they were practicing outside. And Lisa was out doing experiments with the cold. The only other ones still in the house were Lola who was trying to catch up on the "beauty sleep" she had lost from the night before. There was also Lily that was napping in her crib upstairs.

As the two were prepared to walk out the door, Luna sat up from her position on the couch and said, "Hey mom. Would it be okay if I came with?"

"Me too?" Lana said as she rushed in from the kitchen.

Leni came down the stairs and said, "Me four."

Lucy popped out of the vent and said, "I make four Leni."

"Oh shoot. I always get it wrong," Leni responded.

Rita looked at the girls standing before her and rubbed the back of her head. She knew that the girls were severely attached to Lincoln and she really didn't want to say "no" to them. But she knew how reckless her kids could be during their outings, especially the time with the supermarket debacle. The time when Lincoln had volunteered to do the shopping so that he could secure a special kind of cereal.

Rita remembered that incident well, especially afterwards when the girls had admitted to her that they were the ones responsible for the calamity after they had returned home. It made her happy to know that the girls cared enough about him to right a wrong. Seeing them now made her even happier to know that they wanted to be there for him. But at the same time she felt uneasy just letting the girls wait inside of a doctor's office.

"Well I don't know girls. You're not all exactly the most... how should I put this?" Rita began as each of the girls took a sharp inhale, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

Luna held up her hands and said, "Mom we get it, we're not the best behaved kids on the planet."

"But we can sacrifice our time and crazy behavior for a bit," Lana added in.

"I like making sacrifices," Lucy added as well.

Leni stood before Rita and said, "Please mom. Let us be there for Linky."

This was when the girls all joined in giving her the Puppy Dog Eyes look, with the exception of Lucy who's eyes weren't even visible through her hair. Rita peered at all of them and pondered for a moment. It was possible that the girls could behave for a brief period of time, they had done it before. Plus they wouldn't be at the doctor's office for very long anyway, so they would be probably be out before the girls got too impatient or bored. Besides it did make her happy to know that their wanting to go was more out of concern for their brother than just to go out and cause chaos.

Feeling defeated, Rita let out a sigh and said with great reluctance, "Okay girls you can come along."

The girls all cheered at their mother's acceptance.

This gave Lincoln a feeling of some trepidation. He knew that the girls meant well and he appreciated it greatly, but then again they did have a bad track record with causing chaos whenever they went out. Like at the supermarket or how the girls had managed to get their family banned from every pool in town and in many of the surrounding towns as well. He just wondered what would happen if they acted up like this in a doctor's office. Would they be kicked out before the doctor even examined him? He didn't know and he really hoped that wouldn't be the case.

Before he could argue with his mother's decision, he heard the sound of the girls all running off, most likely to get their winter clothing. He couldn't help but gulp as his nerves began to tremble within him. He could hear them return and he could hear that some of them were still pulling on their coats and gloves. Right after, his mother began to lead him out the door and towards the family van.

But as they walked out, Rita suddenly stopped and said, "Wait what was that Lucy said about sacrifices?"

Lincoln could hear Lucy groan and he chuckled a little when she said, "Not THOSE kinds of sacrifices mom."

* * *

The drive to the clinic was a mostly silent one. Usually a simple drive out was full of noise with this family, even when there were only a couple of kids in the car. But for once, with the exception of a song playing on the radio, the van was completely silent. Rita didn't know if she should be happy about that or feeling down about it. On one hand it was nice to know that the kids were being quiet and the only thing she had to focus on was the road. On the other though it did remind her of her son's condition. She figured some of the girls would be heavily effected by it, but she didn't expect everything to get so still, so quiet.

She looked into the rear view mirror above the vans dashboard and could see two of her elder daughters, Leni and Luna, sitting in the front row of the van with Lincoln sandwiched between them with Lana and Lucy sitting in the row directly behind them. Lana and Lucy were just sitting casually and glancing out the window every now and then, neither of whom were smiling (usual for Lucy) and instead looked more down.

Luna and Leni were a little different. Leni sat to his right and kept looking down at Lincoln, gripping his hand the entire time. A frown was plastered across her face as well and a couple of times it looked like she was prepared to cry. Lincoln could sense her sorrow and would occasionally rub her hand gently with his own, trying his best to comfort her. If there's anything that the two of them had in common, it was a caring nature with each other which kept them close. Leni might not have been the brightest girl in the family, in fact she was very far from it. But she was incredibly sensitive, especially when someone in the family was suffering from a malady. Whenever someone in the family was ill she'd try to help them feel better, even if it meant getting herself sick in the process. It was something that she was very good at and was a time where she'd show her more intelligent side. Now with her fretting over Lincoln's current condition, he figured it was his turn to try to help her feel better.

Luna however was different. Unlike Leni who was focusing her attention on Lincoln, it almost looked like Luna was trying to ignore him. She sat in her seat with her arms crossed and was looking out the window as the van continued along. She was humming some familiar songs to herself and would occasionally take a brief look at Lincoln before resuming what she had been doing. She didn't want to admit it, but just looking at Lincoln right now was making her feel a little queasy. This was surprising to Rita since it had been Luna's idea to go with them to the doctor. Maybe she did it to make herself feel better, but Rita noticed that every time Luna tried to take a quick glance at Lincoln it almost looked like she was feeling some kind of physical pain.

Rita watched Luna's behavior in the rear view and worry began to grow within her. She knew how close Luna and Lincoln were with each other and to see her like this was concerning. Her husband had told her about the fight the girls had had the night before and knowing that Luna had been one of the instigators was raising some red flags with her. That combined with her not even bothering to look in Lincoln's direction was, to her, the sign that she and Luna would need to have a little talk later on. But that could wait until they got home.

It wasn't too long before Rita turned off of one street in the middle of town and pulled into a parking lot in front of a small building. The building looked like a regular residential house hold with a small parking lot installed in front of it. A sign sat in the front door reading 'Dr. Alan Alda MD'. Below that was another sign that read "Walk Ins Welcome'.

"Well we're here kids. Remember that this is a doctor's office. That means being on your best behavior and absolutely NO horseplay. Do I make myself clear?" Rita asked with strict clarity.

Each of the girls and even Lincoln voiced their own agreement with clear sincerity, which made Rita smile and left her hoping that they meant it. She unbuckled her seat belt as she heard the rest of the kids doing the same along with the sound of the van's doors beginning to open. But as she stepped out and saw that Luna was starting to walk away from the van, she shook her head and let out a small sigh.

Before Luna could walk away too far, Rita called out to her and said, "Luna come back and help me with your brother please."

Luna stopped in her tracks and turned back towards the van. She met her mother's eyes and wouldn't break off from the gaze, not even as she began to walk back over to them. Even as Lincoln stepped carefully out of the van and stood by his mother's side, Luna would not break her gaze with her mother.

"Mom I can handle it. Luna doesn't need to help me with-," Lincoln said from beside his mother before she interupted.

Rita took a sharp breath and said, "I need to lock up the van and you are not walking off by yourself."

As she said this however, Lana came over to them and said, "I can help."

Rita looked at the six year old and said, "Yes I know you can but-"

Lana however didn't let her mother finish since she took Rita's answer as her simply saying, "Yes." Lana had quickly grabbed Lincoln's hand and began rushing him to the front door of the clinic with Lincoln hollering out with a start. As Lana pulled Lincoln away, Rita just stood there with a bewildered look on her face. She knew Lana could be quick and strong, but she never imagined the child would be able pull her brother away just like that. Looking back at Luna however, Rita saw her sigh and finally broke her gaze with her. Rita couldn't tell, but it almost sounded like Luna's sigh was a sigh of relief.

* * *

The waiting room for the doctor's office was not quite what the family had been expecting. They had been expecting something like they normally saw at the hospital with plastic waiting chairs and little tables at the end of a row of chairs. Instead they happened upon a furnished sitting room with a sofa, a couple of arm chairs, and even a coffee table sitting before them.

"This isn't what I was expecting," Luna stated as she walked to the sofa and ran her hand over the top of the seat and sat down upon it. "Nice imitation leather."

Leni frowned and said, "Oh no. Did they kill imitation cows to make them?"

Luna merely frowned in response. Lucy and Lana took seats in the arm chairs and Lana shifted a little bit in hers.

"Ah this actually feels nice. Hmm... I wonder how well the arms chew up," Lana said as a grin began to form on her face.

Rita helped Lincoln onto the sofa next to Luna, but as she overheard Lana, she couldn't help but frown and glare in the younger girl's direction.

"Don't even think about it young lady," she said to Lana.

Lana had just leaned forward to begin chewing on the arm of the chair, but did as her mother instructed and pulled herself back. Though she still crossed her arms and frowned as a result.

Just as everyone was beginning to make themselves comfortable, a dark haired woman dressed as a nurse walked into the room and approached their mother.

"Excuse me ma'am. Are you Mrs. Loud?" the nurse asked.

Rita turned her head in the woman's direction and said, "Yes I am."

The lady approached her, handed her a clipboard and said, "I just need you to fill out a couple of forms and then we'll be ready for you."

Rita did just as the woman said. She sat next to Lincoln and began filling out all the tedious paperwork that comes with a visit to the doctor. Tedious yes, but neccesary so that the doctor gets all the information they'll need. Rita worked as a dentist and would regularly have to read them herself. So doing the exact opposite couldn't help but make her laugh on the inside.

In due time she finished filling out the form and as soon she had passed it off to the nurse, she quickly read and reviewed it. The nurse left the room and returned a minute later to inform them that the doctor was ready.

"Mrs. Loud, the doctor will see your son now," she announced.

Rita nodded and helped Lincoln back up on to his feet.

"Ready Lincoln?" Rita asked.

Lincoln nodded and said, "As ready as I can be."

Rita patted his shoulder and guided him to the hallway door. As the nurse took Lincoln's hand to take him into the examination room, Rita turned back to the girls.

"Okay girls we'll try not to be long. Just please try to behave yourselves while we're in here," Rita said and went through the door with the girls groaning in annoyance behind her.

The next room was more like what one would expect to see in a regular doctor's office. It was a moderate size room, about the size of a regular bedroom and inside sat an examination bed and a couple of stools sitting next to a desk with various medical tools. A weight scale sat near the bed with an eye chart hanging up on the wall next to it. The nurse pulled Lincoln to one of the stools in the room and told him to sit down upon it.

Dr. Alda may have specialized in the human eyes, but he was also a regular medical doctor as well. A trait that Rita was all too happy about right now as Lincoln may have needed both right now. She knew how intense the heat from the blast inside the furnace must have been and may have left some burns around his eyes in addition to making him blind. Lincoln had said that he wasn't hurting anymore, but Rita knew Lincoln better than that. He'd say a lot of things to keep her from worrying, so she didn't buy everything he was saying right now.

Her thoughts were interrupted however by the sound of someone clearing their throat behind her. She turned to see an older man with a balding head, grey colored mustache and dark eyes was standing in the room's doorway. Wrinkles along his face displayed his age as a man who's lived a long life and his cheerful demeanor was evidence of a man who has lived a successful life.

"Hello Rita. How are you today?" he asked with a smile on his face and a calm tone in his.

Rita smiled back and said, "Hi Dr. Alda. Things have been better." She frowned as she finished her statement though.

He laughed and said, "Rita you haven't been my patient in a long time, you can call me Alan."

Rita let out a soft laugh and said, "I'll take that under advisement."

Dr. Alda chuckled and walked over to Lincoln with the nurse handing the doctor the clipboard that she had given Rita earlier and then left the room. The doctor looked between Lincoln and the clipboard to get a full understanding of the situation before him. He looked at the bandage around Lincoln's eyes and looked at the details that Rita had listed. Lincoln sat calmly, just waiting for the doctor to begin his examination.

Finally at long last, Dr. Alda turned back to Rita and said, "So a furnace accident caused this?"

Rita nodded and said, "Yes. He was helping my husband fix the pilot light last night and they must have released too much of the heater's gas at once."

Lincoln groaned at the recollection and how much his eyes had hurt after the initial blast. It wasn't easy to get over that kind of pain he had felt. For him it had felt like his eyes had been on fire even though, according to Lisa at least, the pain had really been in his head and was actually a reaction to his sudden loss of vision as was usually the case in incidents like this. He didn't care about that though, either way he had felt a fair amount of pain in his eyes after the sudden blast.

Dr. Alda gave a low whistle and sat himself down right in front of Lincoln.

"Yeah we get a few of those at this time of year. Too much gas at once and then WHOOM! If your face is too close to the flame when that happens and the bright flash of flame can overload your vision," Dr. Alda explained.

Lincoln gulped, began to shiver a little and asked, "Is that a bad thing?"

Dr. Alda rested a hand on Lincoln's shoulder and said, "So you do have a voice after all? Just relax son, it could simply mean that you're just experiencing flash blindness. A little medicine to the eyes and resting them for a couple of days usually helps with that."

"Usually?" Lincoln asked with a bit of concern in his voice.

Dr. Alda could sense his concern and said, "I'm not gonna lie son. Most cases of flash blindness turn out well, but every now and then there are a few cases where it takes much longer for the eyes to return to normal. And, sadly, once in a blue moon there's a case where one doesn't get their sight back at all."

"Last night we had paramedics look him over and they said that it could have been hysterical blindness. Any thoughts on that?" Rita asked.

Dr. Alda shrugged and said, "That early in, it wouldn't have been a bad suggestion. But if his vision has been gone this long I'm afraid that that is no longer the case."

He reached his hands out and grabbed the bandage around Lincoln's eyes.

"Now son listen to me for one second. I'm going to remove the bandage from around your eyes so that I can examine them. You know what you have to do when I do that right?" Dr. Alda asked.

Lincoln nodded and then Dr. Alda began unwrapping the bandage. As he finished unwrapping, Lincoln covered his eyes as per the doctor's instructions so that the pads on his eyes could be removed. As this was done, Dr. Alda grabbed the side of Lincoln's head so that he could turn the boy's face in his direction.

Rita watched as the doctor took a small light and shined them right into each of Lincoln's eyes. She could hear the doctor make a few "hmm"s as she watched and at one point he even let out a small whistle. Each sound he made, made her a little more anxious for his diagnosis. This went on for a full minute and Lincoln didn't sway once during the examination. After a full minute of the examination, Dr. Alda asked Lincoln if he was feeling any pain and Lincoln shook his head.

Finally, the doctor put the light away and had Lincoln tilt his head back. He stood up and reached into a nearby cabinet and rummaged around it a little. He pulled out an eye drop container and sat back down in front of Lincoln and prepared the dropper.

"Alright son now keep your eyes open. I'm going to administer some eyes drops to you and when I tell you to, you're going to blink and let the medicine spread over your eyes. Can you do that?" Dr. Alda asked.

Lincoln nodded and the doctor proceeded to do as he said he would. He dripped a couple of drops into each of Lincoln's eye lids and Lincoln blinked, just as he had been instructed. Lincoln kept his head back for a full moment as Dr. Alda grabbed some fresh pads and a fresh bandage for his eyes. As Lincoln kept his head back, the doctor applied the pads and bandage to the boy's eyes.

Once he was finished, he took another glance at Rita and gave her a look. A look that told her that was some things he needed to tell her.

He turned back to Lincoln and said, "Now son you sit here and relax for just a minute. There are some things I need to discuss with your mother."

Lincoln nodded and Dr. Alda pulled Rita back out into the hallway.

"Well? How is he?" Rita asked.

Dr. Alda shrugged and said, "Well let me ask YOU a question real quick. Would you like the bad news first? Or the good news?"

* * *

 **So this took much longer that I thought it would. With work, the fourth of July, helping set up a festival, and all the stress that comes from them it's been hard to get any writing done. But now that it's done I can relax a little bit now. Might not have been one of my better chapters though.**

 **The doctor's office I based off of a doctor's office the town that my grandparents live in and the doctor himself I based off of my own childhood doctor who I'm sorry to say passed away earlier this year. I wanted to tribute him in some way.**

 **Now as for Luna, well I am planning a couple of scenes with her for later on. Maybe in the next chapter too. So if she seems a little OOC here, don't worry things will be addressed as the story progresses.**


	5. Chapter 5

**First off I would like to thank everyone who has viewed my story so far, we just recently broke 10,000 views and it's still going. Second, I'd like to thank everyone who has left a review as your words and advice help to keep me going. And third, thank you for all the faves and follows. We just recently hit the 100 fave mark which I never expected this story to hit. But overall I would to thank everyone for just taking a little time to give my work a chance. Seriously, all of you are the best and I'm glad many of you are enjoying what I have written.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House**

* * *

Back at the house on Franklin Avenue, as the winter winds continued to brush against the houses of the neighborhood, a young African-American boy began making his way up the walk towards the front door of the house. He wore an over sized winter coat along with gloves, boots, and also a hand knit scarf around his neck and a hand knit hat atop his head. The only part of him that was actually visible were his eyes and they were behind a pair of glasses.

He approached the front door and, without hesitation, he knocked on the front door and waited for someone to come and answer it. He didn't have to wait long as one of the few occupants inside, Lynn Sr, came and answered it quickly. He was even still wearing his apron and oven mitts from the kitchen.

The boy looked up at him, pulled his scarf down from over his mouth and with a wave his hand, he said, "Morning Mr. Loud. Is Lincoln home? We have a little project we need to work on."

Lynn Sr looked down at the boy, fully aware of who he was, and said, "Oh hello Clyde. Sorry, but Lincoln isn't home right now. He had a doctor's appointment to go to."

Clyde's eyes suddenly fell and he said, "Oh. He didn't say anything about it to me yesterday."

Lynn Sr was becoming a little uncomfortable. He had no idea how he was going to break the news to Clyde about what had happened to Lincoln the night before. Moreover he also had no idea how Clyde would take the news that his best friend couldn't see.

Lynn Sr scratched the back of his neck out of nervousness, which was hard to do thanks to his oven mitts. He inhaled sharply and said, "Well we just had it scheduled this morning. Something kind of came up last night and he needed to see the doctor today."

Through Clyde's glasses, Lynn Sr could see the boy's eyes grow wide in alarm.

"What? What happened? Is he alright?" Clyde asked with alarm climbing in his voice.

Now Lynn Sr had pretty much backed himself into an adversarial corner. Now he would have to inform Clyde about what happened to the boy's best friend, but how would he do that? Clyde wasn't always the best at taking bad news, especially when it came to his friends and loved ones. But before he could answer, Lynn Sr heard the sound of some chimes going off and took a quick glance at a clock on the dining room wall. It was half past the hour and Rita had informed him that they'd be out for an hour, give or take fifteen minutes or so.

In the end, Lynn Sr gave into his cowardice and looked back at Clyde to say, "It would probably be best if Lincoln told you about it himself. They should be back soon."

"Alright. Probably best that way," Clyde answered with a nod of his head.

A sudden blast of cold wind suddenly hit the both of them, causing them both to shudder from it. Despite his thick and heavy winter coat, Clyde could still feel the icy air biting at his skin. He was just glad he wasn't in Mr. Loud's position whom could feel the wind slashing at his flesh.

Lynn Sr shivered and said, "Why don't you come in and get warm Clyde? Lincoln and them should be back soon. I even made a batch of fresh muffins. I know how much you like those."

Clyde nodded and accepted Mr. Loud's offer by walking into the house. The both of them felt great relief as Lynn Sr closed the door and cut off the wind's cold and biting sting. Lynn Sr walked back towards the kitchen as Clyde peeled off all of his winter clothing, revealing his regular everyday clothing and dark curly hair. He made sure to hang them up and out of the way as his dads had taught him.

He quickly sniffed the air and could smell the sweet muffins that Mr. Loud had baked. If there was one thing that no one ever got tired of it was Mr. Louds muffins, especially when they were freshly baked. Clyde could already feel his mouth watering. This was all bittersweet however as he quickly remembered what Mr. Loud had told him about Lincoln. He just hoped that whatever was happening wasn't too serious and wouldn't effect the future.

He was pulled out of his trepidation as he heard the sound of someone giggling nearby. He turned towards the family couch and found baby Lily sitting there and watching one of her cartoons. Clyde walked over and sat down next to her. Lily looked at him and giggled even harder.

"Hi there Lily. How are you today?" Clyde asked with a smile on his face.

Lily smiled back and said, "Cyde!"

With a giggle from both sides, Clyde pulled her onto his lap and she began to reach up to his glasses. He couldn't help but laugh as Lily tried to grab at them.

Lynn Sr was standing in the kitchen doorway and watched the two of them with a trey of muffins in one of his hands. Even though Clyde was simply Lincoln's best friend, Lynn Sr was almost always happy to see Clyde get along well with the rest of the family and at times it almost felt like the boy was part of it.

He walked over to the couch and said, "Muffins are ready Clyde. They're still warm." He then took one of the blueberry muffins from the trey and handed it off to Clyde.

Clyde took it gratefully and said, "Thanks Mr. Loud."

Before he could take a bite though, Lily began trying to reach up to the muffin in Clyde's hand.

"Uffin," Lily said as best she could and even began to cry a little.

Clyde couldn't help but smile at the infant's innocence and said, "Don't worry Lily. I'll share it with you." And with that he broke a small piece off and gave it to her.

"Yay!" Lilly giggled and began eating small pieces off of the muffin.

Lynn Sr watched them with a smile, but frowned as he turn back to the kitchen with fear etched on his face. Like most of the family, Lynn Sr cared about Clyde, so it worried him on how he'd take it when he found out what had happened. He himself didn't know just how serious it was and would have to wait to hear what his wife would say.

He just hoped that whatever the doctor said that it would be good news.

* * *

Back at the doctor's office, things were still pretty quiet. The girls were waiting patiently, except for Lucy who was constantly saying "sigh" over and over again. Luna was beating her hands against her legs, trying to make a little jam out of it but was unable to get into it the beat. Leni kept trying to make sense of some medical pamphlets that sat on a magazine rack right by the door. She was still trying to figure out how some certain disease could turn someone into Swiss cheese. Lana was also looking through the pamphlets, but was far more interested some of the dirtier portions of the medical profession.

But even with everything they were doing, they kept taking occasional glances at the clock on the wall. It had already been twenty-five minutes since Lincoln and their mother had gone towards the back of the house for his medical examination and each passing minute only made the girls more anxious to find out what was going on or what would become of their brother.

Luna let out a frustrated sigh and began to absentmindedly tap her fingers against the arm of the sofa in an almost rhythmic pattern as Leni set one of the pamphlet's down and began reading another.

She looked at the article in puzzlement and asked, "Okay this can't be right."

Luna looked up from her spot at Leni and asked, "What can't be right?"

Leni pointed at the article in question and said, "This says that manograms are for women, but it has "man" in it's title. I don't get it."

Lana looked at the article over Leni's shoulder and with a frown she said, "Leni that says 'mammograms.'"

Leni looked back at and said, "Oh... that makes more sense."

Everyone just rolled their eyes, with the exception of Lucy who was keeping her eyes glued to the grandfather clock as it chimed the half-hour mark. She was just about too sigh again when she heard the sound of the hallway door opening.

Everyone perked up and turned their heads to the door as they heard it open up. They could see their mother walking through the door with Lincoln and Dr. Alda in tow. The boy still wore the fresh bandage, but now he carried a small wooden cane. The doctor had figured that even if his condition were temporary, he'd need it to help him find his way around.

"Just bring him back on Friday and we'll see where we go from there," Dr. Alda explained and gave Lincoln a pat on the shoulder.

Rita nodded and said, "Thank you Alan."

Dr. Alda gave her an approving smile and returned to the hallway behind him. As the door creaked shut, Rita turned her attention to her daughters that were still sitting in the room before her. She was disheartened though to see Luna covering the side of her face as she looked away from her and Lincoln.

The rest of the girls began gathering around the two of them as they began to ask her for information.

"Well how bad is it?" Lana asked.

"Is Linky going to be okay?" asked Leni.

"Is he lost to the darkness?" Lucy asked.

Lincoln growled mentally and he then said out loud, "Guys I'm right here. Can you please not do this RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME?"

The girls all heard Lincoln shout out and were startled and a little taken aback by his sudden out burst. When they had originally arrived he had looked a little indifferent, but now there was a frown on his his face and if they could see his eyes, he'd most likely be glaring at them.

Rita sighed and shook her head.

"Girls now is not a good time for this. I'll tell you all what you need to know, but for right now I need one of you to take Lincoln out to the van and let it warm up," Rita said and looked directly at Luna.

Rita took a breath knowing that Luna wasn't going to like it, but she knew it wasn't going to be healthy for Luna to keep avoiding her brother. She understood just how badly this ordeal was probably effecting her, but knew it could worse if Luna didn't face it.

Without missing a beat Rita looked at Luna and said, "Luna please take your brother out to the van."

Luna turned to look at her mother and said, "Sorry mom. Maybe Leni coul-"

Before she could finish, her mother interrupted and said, "I wasn't asking, I was telling you to. Luna please take your brother out to the van and turn on the engine to warm it up. He can fill you in on what the doctor said. Right Lincoln?"

Lincoln nodded his head rather reluctantly as his mother patted his shoulder.

"Yes mom," he said.

Rita nodded in appreciation and patted his shoulder. She then looked back to Luna with a more stern look this time.

"Now young lady, do as I say and take your brother out to the van and let it warm up. The two of you look like you could use a little time together anyway," Rita ordered her third eldest child.

Luna wanted to argue, but knew it was pointless to argue with her mother. Especially since Rita was giving her the "mom glare" that could strike fear into any child. Feeling no choice, she groaned and walked over to the two of them. She took Lincoln by his shoulder and, with a glance back at her mother, helped guide Lincoln to the door and out of the doctor's office.

As the two walked out, the rest of the girls looked back at their mother. They could tell by the worried look that now plastered her face that something was wrong. Since none of the girls had spoken up, Lana decided to be the first one to say something.

"Mom? Is Lincoln going to be okay? she asked.

Rita squinted her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh that sounded so depressed, it could give Lucy a run for her money.

Looking back at her children, she tried to hold back some tears and said, "Well girls, I'm not entirely sure. It's kind of complicated."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

"How complicated?" Lana asked as well.

These questions were the big ones.

"Well you see the thing is... the doctor confirmed to me that it's just a serious case of flash blindness and that with a few days of resting his eyes and a little medication he should get his vision back," Rita explained.

"And the bad news?" Lana asked.

Despite only being six years old and one of the more immature children in the household, Lana was nowhere near naive enough to think that everything was going to be alright. She could still see the foreboding look in her mother's eyes and wanted to hear the rest.

Rita took a breath and said, "Well girls... because of the heat of the blast... there was some scorching around his retinas which may or may not be permanent."

Each of the girls gulped when their mother mentioned how bad the extent of the damage to his eyes were. Even Leni, with her limited intelligence, understood just how serious the damage was, but there was still one big question she needed an answer for.

"Mom, what's going to happen to him?" she asked with tears starting to fall from her eyes.

"Well Leni... everyone if Lincoln gets his vision back, and that's a very big 'if', he might have some permanent damage to his vision. He made need to start wearing glasses and might have some occasional pain in his eyes," Rita explained.

This time each of the girls let out a gasp, including Lucy who normally said the word instead of actually doing it. It was bad enough with Lincoln having lost his vision, but now with the information that their brother might not be the same again afterwards was the worst part.

"Things could have turned out worse girls. At least having to wear glasses is better than losing your vision entirely," Rita informed them.

The girls heard what she said and tried to let the information they had received sink in. But Leni couldn't stop her tears, Lana sat back and started kicking the floor, and Lucy just remained quiet as she started looking down at the floor.

Rita couldn't help but feel for the girls and her son. As they prepared to leave the Doctor's office, she clapped her hands to get their attention.

They all turned to look at her and she said, "Best thing we can do right now is take him home and make him comfortable."

The girls all nodded in agreement.

* * *

As Rita stayed in the doctor's office with the rest of the girls, Luna walked outside with Lincoln and was keeping her arm around his shoulder. Even though he couldn't see it, he had a feeling that she was trying to not look at him. Luna couldn't see it, but it really was starting to bother him that she wasn't speaking to him. Whenever he had a problem or something was bothering him, he usually depended on Luna for support.

There were a few instances where she'd be against him though. Like when she and a few of his other sisters had gotten him dates to the dance (that he didn't even want to go to) without talking to him first. The girls had refused to help and made him tackle the issue on his own without their assistance. At least the night had turned out well in the end, but Lincoln knew that things could have easily ended in disaster.

Sure Luna made Lincoln mad at times, but normally he could depend on her. But after what had happened to him the night before, she'd barely said two words to him. Lynn had told him about the fight from the night before where Luna had stood up for him, but now it seemed so different. He was getting close to breaking down from his predicament and it felt like Luna was abandoning him. Just like the entire family had in one of his dreams.

"So I heard you guys got into a fight last night. What was that about?" Lincoln asked her.

Luna opened her mouth to reply, but instead she just snapped it back shut. Lincoln could hear her close her mouth as her teeth met each other. Even though he looked like he was fine on the outside, he was actually groaning inside of his mind.

"Did Lori or someone do or say something to make you angry?" Lincoln asked some more.

Just like the last time he had asked, Luna kept quiet.

"Because I can tell when you guys are upset about something. Despite what Lisa says, I'm not stupid. I can tell when you guys are having an issue with each other," Lincoln continued.

Luna still didn't respond.

"I can also tell when you're trying to avoid an issue. Just like you're trying to avoid me right now," Lincoln said just as Luna was about to open the van door for him.

However, before she could open the door, Luna suddenly froze at Lincoln's words. She knew that Lincoln could be a bright boy and often times could tell what the girls were going to do before they themselves knew it. He could tell when a fight was bound to break out, when the girls would go nuts over something, or when certain events would end in disaster. She had a feeling he'd figure things out.

She heard Lincoln cough a little and this time he said, "Luna will you please just talk to me. Say anything, something mean if you have to. Just please don't leave me like this." He was on the verge of fighting off tears at this point.

This time she felt that she couldn't ignore him any longer. It wasn't through annoyance or his demand that she say something mean. Instead she had heard actual distress and fear in his voice. She looked at the van door and then she, cautiously, turned her head back to Lincoln.

She looked only at his feet at first as that was all she could bear to look at right now. She then slowly drifted her gaze upwards to his calves and legs. She wanted to turn her head back to the car door and even began doing so, but instead she turned her focus back to him. This time she was looking towards his midsection and then out of nowhere, she took a chance and looked directly at where his bandaged eyes were. It was just as bad as she had figured.

She couldn't stop the tears from falling from her eyes, but since Lincoln wouldn't be able to see them she didn't have any reason to hide them. Instead of giving Lincoln a direct answer, she instead reached out for him and wrapped her arms around him. His head pressed into her gut while she rested her face on the top of his head. Lincoln could feel the tears dropping from her eyes.

"I'm sorry Lincoln. I just didn't know what to say or think when I see you like this," she said through her tears.

Lincoln hugged her back and said, "It's okay. Just please don't abandon me. Don't make that dream come true."

Luna shivered at the mention of that cursed dream. The dream where he had convinced everyone, including Lisa of all people, that he was bad luck and they just kicked him out of the house because of it. Luna knew better than to let something like a stupid superstition make her cast her brother out of the family. Still the dream had shaken him up and now he was afraid of everyone simply abandoning him, something Luna had promised him that she would never do.

Yet for the past couple of hours, she'd been doing just that. Maybe if she took a little time to try to get used to the current situation then maybe, just maybe she'd have a better time accepting it. Inside her head she was admonishing herself for treating her only brother like this. The one that she practically took care of when he was smaller. She'd find a way to make up making him feel like this, but for now there was a separate matter at hand.

She started to shiver as a cold wind blew right past them, which served as a reminder as to why she and Lincoln had been sent out here in the first place. She looked back at the van which still sat cold in it's parking space. She still held onto Lincoln and she could feel him beginning to shiver as well.

She let go of him, wiped her tears and as she opened the door she said to him, "C'mon, we can talk about this more at home. For now let's just get in the van before mom and them come out."

Lincoln nodded even though he could still hear some sorrow in her voice. Luna took the cane he had been given and helped him up into the first seat he could grab onto, which just so happened to be the seat that he had dubbed, The Sweet Spot. Part of her wanted to move him over so that she could take the seat for herself. In the end however, she decided that his blindness right now was a good reason for him to deserve the spot and let him keep it. Instead, she took the passenger seat in the front and made sure to start up the engine and turn the heat on.

"Let's get some heat up in here bro," Luna said as she cranked the heating up to maximum.

Lincoln approved and before too long, the van was filling up with warm air. It felt so nice that Lincoln let out a sigh on contentment. Luna smiled and wiped away the remnants of her tears wanting to savor this moment between them, which only brought up a few more tears. She even turned on the radio and switched to a local rock station.

A new song had just started and the first thing she heard were the words, " _Hello darkness my old friend!"_

She groaned and said, "Oh come on. You guys did that on purpose."

She grabbed the dial and was about to turn stations when Lincoln said, "Stop! I like this song."

She looked at him and said, "Are you sure dude? I mean they just said-"

Lincoln stopped her and said, "I heard what they said and it's fine Luna. I'm okay with it."

She shrugged and did exactly as Lincoln had told her and let the song play. Before too long, their mother and the rest of the girls who had gone with them were coming out of the doctor's office, each of them having glum looks about their faces. Luna was a little surprised to see them like that and just sat there until everyone had piled back into the van. As soon as everyone was seated and buckled in, their mother reversed out of the parking space and drove out onto the main road.

Luna looked back at the rest of the vehicle's occupants and saw that Leni had wrapped her arm wrapped around Lincoln and was whispering things into his ear as Lincoln nestled into her embrace. Looking at the rest, she could see that Lana was staring at her own two feet and Lucy remained as silent and as emotionless as she usually was. But that didn't mean that she wasn't hurting. Luna had a feeling that if she could see Lucy's eyes that she would be seeing some hurt in them.

Luna looked at her mother and asked, "So what happened in there? What did the doctor say?"

Rita took a quick look at her and then took a quick look at Lincoln in the rear view mirror.

"Lincoln, you didn't tell her what the doctor said?" she asked.

Lincoln took a sharp inhale and said, "No I forgot to mention it."

He didn't want to tell her about the things he had actually told Luna. He didn't want to add another thing to the list of problems that his mother was having right now. She certainly didn't need to be worrying about how one of her other children was dealing with the issue so harshly.

"What's going on?" Luna asked with more concern in her voice this time.

Rita sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She had hoped that Lincoln would fill Luna in on all of the details to spare her the misfortune of having to repeat them. But sadly that was too much to ask for.

"Young man I swear," she began and then turned her attention back to Luna.

"Well honey first you had better prepare yourself, because I have some bad news ahead," Rita said to her.

* * *

 **Hey everyone. I really wanted to have this chapter out sooner, but sadly that didn't happen. My own fault this time, it's been very hot and humid here recently and the two combined make my stress levels skyrocket. Doesn't help that I work outdoors either. I don't write well when I feel agitated so I could really only work on this on my days off when I was feeling less so. But the heat wave is passing and we're going back to regular summer weather. Thank you to everyone for sticking out the wait.**

 **As I stated in this chapter, I like to think that the events of No Such Luck were nothing but a nightmare that Lincoln had had. To me it's the only way to explain why everyone felt so out of character in that episode, especially Lisa and their parents. It just makes the most sense to me.**

 **Once again I'd to thank everyone for simply taking the time to read this story and thank you all for 100 faves. You are all incredible and I hope to see how far we can go with this story.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well I have some good news. Since the summer hours at work are gonna be running down after this weekend, I'll have more free time which I think I'll be dedicating to my writing. So just bear with me everyone, I should be updating my stories a little faster in the next couple of weeks. I'm still going to be going at a pace I'm comfortable with of course, but I really do want to get these stories going. In the meantime, enjoy this next chapter.**

 **I know that this chapter is heavy on dialogue, but I have it that way so I can give an idea and how everyone's feeling so I hope it's still good regardless. I also tried to add a few more gags in to bring a little more humorous side to this story and hopefully I did good there as well.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House**

* * *

Back at the house, Clyde was still sitting on the couch with baby Lily still in his lap and he was even watching one of her cartoons, a show about dancing flowers, with her. He wasn't too invested in the show, but Lily liked it and was she clearly happy to have someone watch it with her, so he tolerated it as best as he could. Mr. Loud had even offered him another muffin which Clyde had initially declined, but Mr. Loud had insisted he have it so Clyde felt it was best to take him up on the offer. He just wished that Lily would stop trying to grab for his glasses during commercials.

Another song and dance number had finished in the cartoon which caused Lily to laugh and clap, which Clyde decided to join in on.

"That was nice wasn't it Lily?" Clyde asked her.

Lily babbled happily, but was interrupted as the front door swung open and an agitated Lynn stepped into the house as the door hit the wall beside the entrance.

"I'm back!" Lynn called out irritably.

Her father poked his head out of the kitchen and said, "Back already Jr? You haven't even been gone an hour."

Still fuming, Lynn walked into the living and slammed the door shut behind her.

"Half the team didn't show up today because they couldn't get out of their houses or their parent's cars wouldn't start," Lynn stated flatly.

Clyde looked over at her and asked, "Was it because of the cold?"

Lynn froze for a second and then looked right at him. She hadn't been expecting him to be there and was almost shocked to see him sitting on the couch. And that shock quickly turned to nervousness as she began to grin in a similar manner as Lisa normally would whenever the four year old accidentally mentioned one of her sketchy experiments or the siblings asking her about sketchy statements.

"Oh hey Clyde. What uh... what are you doing here?" she asked him.

Clyde gave her a suspicious look and said, "I came over to help Lincoln with a project. I've been coming over all week for it, you knew that."

Lynn paused and she sweat dropped as she realized that she had just made a little mistake. Of course, she had forgotten about a special project that he and Clyde had been working on lately and she had been present with the two of them in the living room the night before when Clyde said he'd be back the next day to continue work. This merely added a new level of issues that they would surely be facing.

"You feeling okay? You look a little out of it," Clyde added on.

Lynn twiddled her fingers nervously and wasn't sure how to respond to his question. She wasn't a very good liar and she had no idea how she could try to hide what was really going on. She knew she'd have to tell him what was going on, but she shot a look at her father who was still peeking out from the kitchen door.

Just one look at his athletic daughter told Lynn Sr. that she really wanted to tell Clyde what was actually going on. He knew what she was thinking and he himself really wanted to tell Clyde as well, but in the end he really believed that Lincoln should be the one to drop the bad news on him. So instead of allowing her to, he shook his to tell her not to.

So Lynn decided to clutch her stomach a little and with a forced groan she said, "Oh nothing. I just have a little gas is all."

She let out another fake groan to try emphasize her point and clutched her stomach even harder.

"Want me to make you something for that? My dads taught me a juice recipe to help relieve internal pressure," Clyde offered.

Lynn shook her head and said, "Nah I'll be alright. I just have to let it run it's course. Besides it'll make for some good pranking material for later."

She even laughed a little at the last part and Clyde just shrugged as Lynn walked towards the kitchen. Clyde turned his attention back to the TV, but his vision suddenly became blurred as Lily had finally managed to snag his glasses and giggled as she held them up to her own eyes. Clyde could tell what she was doing and laughed with her.

"Very funny Lily. Now give them back," he said as he tried to take them from her.

He managed to grab his glasses but as he tried to pull them away, Lily would just pull back on them and even whined a little she did so.

Clyde sighed and said, "You're not going to make this easy are you?"

"Nuh-uh," was Lily's response.

Back inside the kitchen, Lynn Sr. breathed a sigh of relief as Lynn Jr. walked in. They had dodged a bullet for now, even though he knew this relief would be very short lived. Rita had called him a little bit earlier and told him that they were on their way, even making sure that Rita knows about Clyde waiting for Lincoln at the house.

She had agreed that Clyde should learn about Lincoln's condition from Lincoln when they got back. That had been ten minutes ago and he knew that they could be back at any minute.

Lynn Jr. looked at her father and asked, "You didn't want me to tell him did you?"

Her father shook his head and said, "It would probably be best if your brother told him. Clyde might have a better time dealing with the problem if he heard it from his best friends mouth."

Lynn Jr. nodded in agreement and looked back into the den to see Clyde still trying to get his glasses back from Lily, only with the both of them laughing this time.

"How do you think he'll take it?" she asked.

Lynn Sr. rubbed the back of his head and said, "I don't know. I hope he takes it well enough."

"And if he doesn't?" Lynn asked her father.

The two of them took another glance at Clyde as he finally managed to get his glasses back from Lily who was still laughing with him despite having lost her game of tug of war.

Lynn Sr. let out a sigh himself and said, "Then we'll need to give the both of them the support they'll need."

* * *

Back with the family in the van, Rita had just finished explaining to Luna what was going on and Luna couldn't help but gape at her mother and then do the same as she looked back to Lincoln. It was bad enough knowing her brother had a possibility of not getting his sight back, but the thought that even if he did it would be permanently altered was too much to take in all at once. She could feel tears ready to well up, but she tried to force them back down and even wiped at her eyes just to be safe.

She took a few deep breaths and said, "Wow mom. That's just _Bringin' On the Heartbreak_."

Rita shook her head and said, "I'm sorry Luna, but you needed to know. The sooner you know about it, the better."

Luna sighed and said, "I know. At least now I know what I can expect."

"It might not be like that entirely Luna," Lincoln piped up from his seat.

Lucy added in by saying, "He said there's a chance for permanent damage, but he never said it would be absolute."

"We'll go back on Friday and let Dr. Alda take the bandages off to examine his eyes and hopefully they'll be functioning again. Until then Lincoln needs our support. So please Luna, no more ignoring him," Rita said to Luna.

Luna turned back to her mother with a look of shock on her face. Had it really been that obvious? Had her mother really been that observant through the whole thing? As she thought though, she quickly recalled her mother trying to get her to help Lincoln a couple of times through the day and she had really tried to force it pretty hard. How could she have missed that?

With a groan, Luna leaned back in her seat and looked out the window in shame.

Her mother could see Luna's reaction out of the corner of her eye and said, "I'm not stupid young lady, I could see what you were doing earlier. You know better than to abandon family in their time of need, especially when your brother is involved. He needs all of us now, more than ever before."

Luna shifted her eyes to the side view mirror and looked at her reflection, showing the look of shame that now etched her face.

"I know mom," she said dejectedly.

"And I know you don't want THAT dream to come true," Rita added and Luna nodded in response.

Suddenly Lana perked her head up and said, "Wait a second. Luna what were you trying to do?"

Luna gulped as Lana said that and she looked back to see that the six year was beginning to glare at her.

"You tried to ignore Lincoln?" Lucy asked next.

Luna wasn't sure how Lucy was looking at her right now given how her bangs always hid her eyes, but she had a feeling that it was a look of displeasure. Luna turned her head over to Leni, who was patting Lincolns hand, and instead of giving a hard look at Luna, Leni was looking at her sadly.

"Why would you ignore him like that?" Leni asked with sadness in her voice and tears forming in her eyes.

Luna turned away and looked back at her reflection, only with a more disheartened look on her face than last time.

"Because I was too scared to admit the truth and face it head on. I felt that if I tried to pretend that it wasn't happening, then things would feel like normal again," Luna admitted and tears began to stream from her face. "I was a fool to think that would work."

She turned back to Lincoln and said, "Bro, please forgive me."

Lincoln inhaled sharply and said, "How can I forgive you Luna?"

Luna's heart skipped a beat as Lincoln uttered those words. Had she actually upset him that bad?

"How can I forgive you you when there's nothing that needs to be forgiven? You got scared, it happens. I'm scared right now about my eyes and I tried to stay positive. Clearly it didn't work for me, did it?" Lincoln added on and even cracked a smile at the end.

His words did give Luna a moment to think and as she did a smile formed on her face. She wanted to pat his hand in thanks, but he was sitting too far away from her to do that.

So she merely said, "Thanks bro."

As they watched the moment, both Lana and Lucy cooled off and sat back down in their seats again. Lana had even begun to smile again as well. Leni however had a different reaction as she was now practically sobbing her eyes out.

"That... was... so... beautiful," Leni said between her sobs.

Lana groaned, rolled her eyes and said, "It wasn't THAT dramatic Leni."

Leni reacted by pulling Lana into a bone crushing hug and while she was still sobbing she cried out, "Yes it was."

Leni pulled tighter on the smaller girl and Lana began to struggle in Leni's grip.

"Too tight! Too tight! Leni please let go! Can't breathe!" Lana gasped out as Leni held her.

Lucy watched the scene and couldn't but laugh a little at Lana's misfortune.

"Ha ha ha, this fills me happiness," Lucy said and then frowned as she finished her sentence. "I don't like it. Leni, let her go."

Leni suddenly stopped sobbing and peered down at Lana who was struggling even harder than before. Leni grinned sheepishly and released her grip on Lana who began to inhale and exhale deeply as she tried to catch her breath again.

"Oops. Sorry Lana," Leni said as Lana took one last deep breath.

Lana coughed a little and in a very raspy voice she said, "It's cool."

She sat flat again as the van pulled onto their street. It wasn't long before their house came into view and Rita began to take some deep breaths as she tried to prepare herself for the bombshell that she was about to drop on the rest of the family. She could already see Lisa finishing up whatever she had been working on in the yard and she watched the small girl walk into the house as the van approached.

She pulled into the drive and as she shut off the engine, she turned to everyone else in the van and said, "Alright kids we're home. Are you ready to do this?"

The kids, except for Lincoln, looked at each other wearily but they all figured that they were as ready as they would ever be. They looked back to their mother and all nodded in response.

"What about you Lincoln? Ready to tell them?" Rita asked her son.

Lincoln nodded and said, "Yes I am."

Rita wanted to smile, even tried to force one, but it was all a futile effort as nothing was going to make her smile right now. The only that would make her feel better in any way right now would be to get the nerves out of her system and get the butterflies out of her stomach.

She unbuckled and said, "Let's do it."

* * *

Back inside the house, Lisa walked in through the front door and spotted Clyde sitting on the couch with Lily almost immediately. Lisa couldn't help but observe the two of them as the duo still watched Lily's cartoon on the TV. Clyde shifted his head and spotted Lisa standing near the door as she closed it.

"Oh hey Lisa," Clyde called out with a wave of his hand.

Lisa waved back and said, "Greetings esteemed house guest. Pardon my intrusion, but I just felt the need to observe as you and my sole younger sibling were frolicking upon our rather sizeable sofa."

Clyde couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and asked, "Is it weird that I actually understood all of that for once?"

Lisa shook her head and said, "Not at all. It just means that your cranium is developing at it's standard rate."

"Uh... thanks? I guess," Clyde said with a slight shrug.

Lisa rolled her eyes and said, "I spoke too soon. Oh and by the way if you're looking for Lincoln, he and half of the family are now approaching our abode as we speak. Though I must warn you that Lincoln's ocular vision has taken on a serious affliction that may or may not impede the progress of your enterprise."

"Now you just lost me," Clyde responded to Lisa's complex explanation.

Lisa frowned and said, "I'll just let you find out for yourself when Lincoln comes in. In fact, the family's means of conveyance appears to be pulling into the driveway at this moment. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go enter in some data."

With that, Lisa ascended the stairs and disappeared from sight. With her words, Clyde glanced out the window and could see Vanzilla pulling into the driveway. He stood up from his spot, making Lily fuss a little bit in the process and went over to the window. He looked out and could see some of the occupants inside. He could make out Mrs. Loud and Luna sitting in the front seat. He watched as Mrs. Loud turned towards whoever was sitting in the back of the van. A few seconds afterwards he saw both Luna and Mrs. Loud nodded their heads and began unbuckling their seat belts.

"Okay, now I'm REALLY curious," Clyde said as he went back over to the couch

He only had to wait for a moment before the front door swung open and Mrs. Loud entered the house along with the two younger girls that had left with her, but they all paused and went pale as they saw Clyde sitting on the couch.

"Oh... hey Clyde," Lana said and then suddenly squinted as she saw him.

Clyde looked back at the trio in the doorway and noticed the stunned looks on their faces. He's seen turmoil in the Loud family in the past, plenty of times. But he had never seen them like this before, especially from Lana who normally could handle a lot.

Finally not wanting to wait any longer, Clyde began with his own glare, and said, "Okay can someone please tell me what's going on? Everyone's been acting pretty weird today."

Rita took a glance out the door and knew she couldn't keep this charade going on in front of Clyde. Moreover she figured it would be good if Clyde found out sooner rather than later and with Lincoln back at the house it would probably make things a bit easier.

Rita took a breath and said, "Well Clyde, it's like thi-"

"LINCOLN'S GONE BLIND!" shouted a voice from the stairs.

Everyone turned their heads to see Lola standing in the middle of the staircase with a look of guilt etched onto her face. Clyde's mouth began to hang open, as the rest of the trio at the door shot glares up at Lola on the stairs.

"Wait what?" Clyde said as Lola's words began to process within his mind.

Lana glared up at her twin and said, "Oh good going Lola."

Lola kept her guilty expression and said, "I'm sorry. I saw you guys pull in and when I came down I panicked."

Lisa poked her head around the corner and said, "I would correct you on your grammatical errors but-"

Before Lisa could finish, Lola turned her head to the family genius and with venom in her voice she yelled out, "STUFF IT LISA!"

Without even flinching or changing her own expression, Lisa merely adjusted her glasses and said, "Well back to my research."

While everyone was bickering, Clyde found himself losing his patience.

"Okay what is everyone going on about? All I heard was something about Lincoln being blind. What does that mean?" Clyde asked as Lola continued fuming.

"I think I had better explain it to you," came Lincoln's voice.

Lincoln stepped in through the front door, grasping the door frame with his free right hand while Leni grasped his left arm. Luna was coming up behind them with her hands on Lincoln's shoulders. Every one of them in the doorway had a glum expression on their faces as they saw Clyde, with the exception of Lincoln who could only hear Clyde's voice.

As for Clyde himself, it had been alarming enough to hear about Lincoln's condition from Lola's unsubtle outburst. But now he could see Lincoln standing in front of him with a bandage wrapped his head where his eyes were supposed to be.

"What the? Lincoln, what happened to you?" Clyde gasped out as Luna closed the door behind her.

Lincoln took a sharp inhale and said, "It's kind of a long story. I should probably tell you."

Before he could begin, Lynn Sr. walked into the living room from the kitchen and was followed quickly by Lynn Jr., who was munching on a muffin, to join the rest of the family already gathered there. Even Lola finished descending the stairs to hear what everyone had to say.

"Well can someone start? Because I see that my best friend can't see at all and now I'm starting to freak out. What happened to him?" Clyde asked and then began to breathe in and out so fast that he was practically hyperventilating.

Lynn Jr. wrapped her arms around Clyde's chest from behind and said, "Clyde calm down. Slow down and breath deeply and calmly. You'll asphyxiate yourself if you keep hyperventilating like that."

Clyde wanted to break from her grasp, but she held him too tight to be able to break out easily. So he knew the only way to break free of her grasp was to do as she said and began to slow down his breathing to the point where it came in and out normally again and his pulse began to slow down again.

"Feel better?" Lynn Jr. asked him.

Clyde nodded and she released her grip on him.

"Sorry everyone. It's just... seeing Lincoln like this is just-," Clyde began with his pulse beginning to rise again until Mr. Loud placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Clyde relax. We understand what you're feeling. We're all feeling it right now," Lynn Sr. said to Clyde calmly.

Clyde looked back at Lincoln and the rest of the family. Leni was no longer gripping his hand as both Lana and Lola were gripping his hands right now. Lana gripped his right hand and an uncertain look on her face right now as she probably wasn't sure how to think right now. Lola however was different as she was gripping Lincoln's left hand tightly and had a more worrisome look on her face. As cruel and mean as the small girl could be, she still had a lot of love and admiration for her elder and only brother.

Leni had moved off to the side and still had a couple of tears running down from her eyes with Lucy actually trying to pat Leni on the back at the same time. Oh how Clyde wished he could see Lucy's eyes to see how she was feeling. Luna was different however as she had more of a look of guilt on her face, which Clyde just found confusing.

"So what happened to cause this? And will he be okay?" Clyde asked with his pulse beginning to hasten again.

Lynn Sr. looked at Clyde and then at his kids. The family head knew exactly what had caused Lincoln's blindness and who was partially at fault for it so he believed that both he and Lincoln could explain that part. At the same time he was also desperate to hear what the doctor had said about his son's condition.

"Why don't we all come over to the sofa. We can all have a seat and explain everything there," Lynn Sr. suggested.

Everyone nodded in approval.

* * *

Some time passed and during that time, Lincoln had explained everything that had happened to him the night before to Clyde. With him waking up to use the bathroom, to the furnace being out, the vote to send him to help fix it (with some guilty looks from some of the girls), and finally the accident itself. Everyone listening couldn't help but wince as Lincoln described the feeling his eyes had had after the flame had flashed over before his very eyes. Clyde especially had felt like gagging at some of the more gruesome details in Lincoln's explanation.

Afterwards it was Rita's turn as she explained everything that Dr. Alda had explained to her. Including his diagnosis, treatment options, and the possible permanent effects by Lincoln's current condition. As Rita explained the permanent damage that Lincoln may be facing, Lynn Sr. had a look of guilt upon his face that just grew as he knew that he had played a role in his son's blindness. It was bad enough to know that was partially responsible for his son going blind, but now he knew that it went much deeper than that. He couldn't help but groan as his wife explained it, which resulted in Rita grasping his hand and patting it gently.

And the whole time, the girls had had a hard time listening to the explanation as it just brought back the terrible moments from the night before and it reminded them of what the future possibly had in store for them and their brother.

It was Clyde who seemed to take everything mostly well. He had kept a straight face the entire time, but some slight glistening in his eyes was enough to tell everyone else there that he was still feeling effected by what they were saying.

As they finished, Clyde sighed and said, "Well I have to say that this is a lot to take in. I honestly don't know what to say right now."

"You're not the only one," Lincoln replied.

Clyde placed a hand on Lincoln's shoulder and said, "Come on buddy. Wearing glasses won't be THAT bad. I've worn them my entire life and I've gotten along just fine."

"As fine as a doofus can be that is," Lynn Jr. whispered and then snickered to herself.

"LYNN JR.!" her father scolded as he had heard what she had said and that caused her hush up.

"Upside is that I get this nifty wooden cane from the doctor," Lincoln said and held up the cane that the doctor had given him. "Since he believes the condition may only be temporary he gave me this one to help me find my way around."

"He also said to stay home as much as possible to keep his surroundings familiar. Which means we'll have to pull you out of school for the week," Rita added on.

"Now we just need someone to watch him during the day," Lynn Sr. added.

"We could do it!" each of the girls in the room yelled out.

The parents were amazed that the girls seemed eager that they all wanted to help their brother out. But in the end however, the parents shook their heads, knowing that their kids, with the exception of Lisa, would try to weasel their way out of school whenever they could. But the girls couldn't miss an entire week, whether their brother was blind or not.

"Sorry girls, but that's going to happen. I'll call my boss in a little bit to see he can give some time off. Or at the very least let me take Lincoln to the dentist office with me," Rita addressed her husband and the kids before turning to Lincoln as she ran a hand through his hair. "It may be boring honey, but at least I can keep an eye on you there."

Lincoln nodded and said, "I understand mom."

"And I already have this Thursday off, but I'll see if Sergei can give me an extra day or two," Lynn Sr. added.

Both husband and wife approved of this plan and they hoped that their bosses would be okay with it.

"Wait! We can still help out," Lynn Jr said suddenly.

Luna added in by saying, "We have teacher conferences on Wednesday and both the high school and middle school will be closed."

And in another rare move of intelligence on her part, Leni held up one of their school calendars and said, "See for yourself."

The parents took the calendar from Leni and examined it carefully. They looked at the date of the upcoming Wednesday and sure enough it was labeled as an off day for the high and middle schoolers.

The husband and wife looked at each other catiously, but they had an idea on what the other was thinking. They looked back at the older kids and nodded.

"It's true. You do have Wednesday off," Lynn Sr. responded.

Lucy, Lana and Lola all scoffed and said, "Lucky!" in unison and then all looked at each other in bewilderment from their moment of unison.

"Okay girls, we'll leave it to you that day. But remember, keeping an eye on your brother is important, even more so than when he was little," Rita explained to the girls.

"Understood," Luna, Leni and Lynn all said in unison as well and then looked at each other in bewilderment as well.

Clyde couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed at this whole situation, especially knowing that the two had their little project that they had been working on for almost two months now and would now have to be delayed.

"So what do I do? I can't just sit out while this is going on," Clyde said out loud.

Lincoln reached out and carefully grabbed Clyde's shoulder as well.

"Clyde, you're my best friend. You can help me in all sorts of ways, including simply talking to me through the walkie at night," Lincoln answered.

Clyde smiled once again and said, "You're right, thanks buddy. Now how about we go upstairs and I read some of your comics to you?"

Lincoln nodded and said, "That would be good." He grabbed his mother's arm and asked, "Would that be okay mom?"

Rita smiled, jostled her son's hair and said, "Of course. You two go hang out for a bit and we'll try to figure out how this week will play out."

"Awesome!" both Lincoln and Clyde said at the same time and they got up from the couch.

Clyde took Lincoln by the arm and helped guide his way up the stairs. The girls wanted to follow and make sure that he got up there safely, but their parents stopped them before they could start.

"Girls we know that you're all worried about your brother, we're worried too," their dad said to them.

"But we all need to play a hand in at least keeping him comfortable and helping him, but Clyde's got it handled for now," their mother added on.

"So what do WE do in the meantime?" Lynn Jr. asked.

The answer was obvious to all of them, but they still had a hard time accepting the current situation. But as much as they didn't like it, it was happening regardless and they had to accept that sad fact.

Rita looked at all of her girls that were gathered before her and said, "We give him our support."

* * *

 **My mind feels really numb right now from all this writing I've been doing lately. I'm gonna take a few days off and I'll get back to writing at the end of the week. I just need a couple of days to rest my mind.**

 **So here's a little spoiler for the next chapter, Lincoln will get a call over his computer. Can you all guess who it is that's going to call him? I think we all know who it is.**


	7. Chapter 7

**So I do want to apologize for the lateness of this chapter. The problem I had was that I wrote myself into so many corners while writing this that I kept getting stuck and I'm sure that it's gonna show here. And I am going to admit that there was some procrastination involved as well, so writing has been kinda slowed down lately. One of those events being a certain recent movie involving a monster clown.**

 **Looking at the reviews for the last chapter, many people were able to figure out who'll be calling Lincoln this chapter. For those who figured it out, I salute you.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House.**

* * *

An hour or two had passed since the family had returned home from the doctor's office and they had tried their best to settle back into their normal daily routines. Lisa was working on some experiments in her room, not even batting an eye on the current family situation. Luna was in her room and strumming her guitar, but not being passionate about it as she normally was. Lola and Lana were watching their cartoons on the couch downstairs with Lily sitting with them. Lucy was holed up in the vents either spending her time watching Lincoln and Clyde in Lincolns room or she was trying to write some poetry about her current feelings of darkness. Lynn was in the backyard and trying to practice some soccer drills despite the frigid winter air. And finally their parents were busy contacting their workplaces, trying to get their bosses to give them some time off this week.

They were at least glad to know that some of their older girls would be willing to look after their brother one day this coming week, which took some pressure off of their shoulders. Now as for the rest of the week, that was a different matter. Rita had tried to persuade her boss to let her have Monday off, but he wouldn't have it. Though he did at the very least grant her request to let her son stay at the dentist office that day to keep him out of trouble and keep him safe. But he did grant her Friday off though so that she could take him back to the doctor that day.

Lynn Sr. had an easier time with his boss though. He had managed to get Tuesday off as well as Thursday, seeing as his boss was a family man himself and knew that what Lynn was going through right now with his son must have been rough on him. He gave him the extra day off and even wished his son the best of luck.

With the days for the next the week being settled, all that they truly had to worry about was whether or not Friday would bring them good news or the worst news.

Noon began to quickly approach and Lynn Sr. was already in the kitchen making lunch for the kids and had no issues with making some extra for Clyde and it wouldn't be too long before the rest of the house's occupants would return home. Luan promised to be home before lunch since she had an early party to cater to and Lori only had a short shift today so they didn't expect her to be too far behind after the comedian teen.

Soon after the clock struck noon, the front door swung open and Luan entered in through the front door, earning glances from the twins sitting on the couch. They looked up at her and instead of seeing her usual cheerful demeanor, they saw exactly what they were expecting of her. Luan was carrying in her box of props and she wasn't smiling like normal. Instead, she appeared to be frowning and was even squinting a little bit. Whether it was from the cold or... other feelings was anyone's guess.

They looked up and as if they could read each other's minds, they both said simultaneously, "Hi Luan."

Luan turned her head towards them and said, "Oh. Hey you two."

Luan began slipping off her winter coat and her snow boots that she had taken with her.

"So... how was the party?" Lana asked.

Luan began taking off her winter gloves and said, "Oh it was okay I guess. Wasn't too big and I kept everyone entertained for a bit. No biggie."

Now they knew Luan wasn't feeling happy and to be fair, they kind of expected that. Normally Lincoln would have gone with her to help her out. But they knew that that hadn't been an option today due to his doctor's visit and his current malady. Him not being there must have been a harsh reminder for her.

Moreover, usually when she had a successful performance, she'd be bragging about it and cracking jokes about the show and the audience regardless if she was exhausted or not. They didn't see that big sister in front of them right now and instead they saw her being as mopey as the teens she usually preformed for.

She set her box down on the ground and said, "I'm not really in the mood to talk about how my gig went. I just want to relax and think for a bit."

She reached into the box and pulled a plate with a glass dome on it. One glimpse at it was enough to tell them what was inside. They would have asked for some of it and trust me when I say that they were really tempted to. But they both had a feeling that they knew who she was saving for and figured it was for the best that he have it.

"Is Lincoln home? I have something for him," Luan asked.

Yep, they were right.

The girls nodded and pointed up the stairs and in the direction of his room. Luan thanked them with a nod and ascended up the stairs. The girls stood up and watched her as she went up and then took a glance at each other.

"Think she's feeling okay?" Lola asked her twin.

Lana shrugged and said, "I don't know. Then again are any of us feeling good right now?"

Lola sat back down and said, "I know that I'm not right now."

Lana followed suit and added in, "I'm not either."

* * *

In the meantime up in his room, Lincoln and Clyde sat on Lincoln's bed with Clyde reading aloud from some of Lincoln's comic books. The boys couldn't help but laugh whenever Clyde tried to imitate the voices of Ace Savvy, his crew, or his various villains. Clyde knew he wasn't very good at the imitations, but it didn't stop him from laughing at himself and simply enjoy the moment of hilarity.

Clyde put the comic down and said, "Man, Ace sure gets himself into some weird situations."

Lincoln laughed and said, "Especially with YOU doing the voice work."

The duo laughed together and Clyde wiped some tears from his eyes.

"Oh man, I just wish I could actually describe everything that's going on. There's a lot of funny background stuff going on," Clyde said as he tried pointing them out to Lincoln, but one glance back at his friend made him remember that it would be futile to do so.

Clyde pulled the comic back and said, "I'd show you but..."

Lincoln's smile vanished and said, "Yeah yeah I know. I mean I know what you're talking about and some of it needs to be seen. But that's not an option right now."

Clyde frowned as well and said, "Sorry buddy. I didn't mean to make you feel down."

Lincoln shook his head and said, "No it's okay Clyde, you didn't mean it. Somethings just happen is all. You can go ahead and keep on reading, I don't mind it."

Clyde's smiled returned and began to reach for another comic, but Lincoln's ears perked for a moment and cupped one of his hands around his ear.

Clyde noticed this and said, "You hear something?"

Lincoln nodded and said, "It sounds like someone is walking to my door."

Clyde was about to ask him how he knew that, when the sound of someone knocking on the door was heard. This was a rare sound for Lincoln as he wasn't used to anyone knocking on his door in the past. Usually everyone in the house, including his parents would normally just barge right in without any form of formality. So suffice it to say, the sudden knocking made him jump, just a little bit.

"Lincoln? You in there?" came Luan's voice.

Lincoln began to breathe a little easier at the sound of Luan's voice. Not that he was afraid or anything, but hearing his older sister's soft voice helped relieve some of the shock that he had just received.

Lincoln took a second to compose himself and said, "Yeah Luan. The door's open."

He then heard the sound of the door creaking open, followed by the sound of Luan walking partway into the room.

Clyde was the first to speak up as he said, "Hey Luan."

Luan looked back at Clyde and formed a weak smile on her face as she answered back, "Oh hey Clyde."

Luan had to admit, it was a bit surprising to see Clyde sitting there with Lincoln. She figured that since Clyde wasn't normally very good at taking bad news that he would at the very least be a little freaked out by Lincoln's current situation. But here they were, acting like normal. Despite the fact that Clyde was the one holding a comic book while Lincoln sat up against his headboard with a bandage over his eyes. Lincoln tried to sit up a bit more as he heard Luan close the door behind her.

"I don't want anyone else knowing I brought this up here. I'm honestly surprised that Lola and Lana didn't want any when I brought it in. You know how those two are when it comes to sweets," Luan stated as she lifted the dome off of the plate.

Withing a second, the smell of the cake beneath the dome wafted through the air and hit Clyde's nostrils. The rich aroma of the cake filled his senses and made him drool. As for Lincoln, the smell was overwhelming and practically made him shiver from the sweet smell. He'd had plenty of cake from the birthday parties in the past, but they had never smelled as good as the one that Luan had brought home this time. Even had a familiar smell to it.

"Ooh that smells REALLY good," Clyde said and took another sniff of the air.

Luan couldn't help but smile a little more at the innocent display in front of her and said, "Yeah. The people I was performing for made it themselves. Sometimes there's nothing better than a homemade cake."

"Especially a mix of milk chocolate and dark chocolate," Lincoln said out loud.

Luan looked back at Lincoln and turned her smile into a look of inquiry.

"How'd you know that? I didn't even describe it to you yet," Luan asked.

Lincoln sniffed the air once more and said, "Well I know what both kinds of chocolate smell like and I can smell it all the way over here."

Clyde listened to what Lincoln said and responded by saying, "That's amazing. I couldn't even tell what kind it was and I'm looking at..."

Clyde trailed off as he registered what he had just said and Luan herself was even taken aback a little bit with an embarrassed look on her face. Clyde rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Lincoln could sense their agitation and said, "Guys it's fine, you don't need to tiptoe around it. This, all of this, is just going to take all of us a little time to get used to. For all of us."

"But what if you're stuck like this Lincoln, that's a possibility I don't think I can handle," Luan said with a slight whimper in her voice.

Lincoln heard the crack in her voice and couldn't help but feel a little bit of pity for her. She was one of his older sisters that he had a closer connection with, despite her insane April Fool's Day pranks, and he really did hate it when she was feeling down. Even if he didn't care for her jokes like he did as a little boy, sometimes a little humor from her when he felt down was just what the doctor ordered. He couldn't let her sulk like this... especially since there was cake at stake.

"Hey come on Luan, where's that witty sense if humor of yours?" Lincoln asked optimistically.

Luan sighed out of frustration and said, "It's in reserve right now Lincoln and I don't feel like cracking any jokes because of it."

She set the piece of cake down on his desk with an audible clatter and with irritation rising she said, "NOW DO YOU WANT THE STUPID CAKE OR NOT?"

Both Clyde and Lincoln jumped and pulled back a bit at the sound of Luan raising her voice and they both nodded their heads. As a result, Luan's anger began to subside and she turned to leave the room.

"Good. Now just do me a favor and don't bother me right now. If dad finishes lunch soon, tell him I'm not hungry," Luan said and exited the room.

Clyde watched her as she walked down the hall back to her room with Lincoln listening. She closed the door with a slightly hard slam, most likely startling Luna in the process.

The duo sat in stunned silence for a moment to process what had just happened. Lincoln was glad he hadn't been able to see Luan's face, because it most likely would have terrified him if he had. Luan rarely got THAT mad and even rarer than that was her being THAT angry at him. And for what? A piece of cake? Or were there other reasons for her heightened anger right now. Lincoln was sure he knew the answer and wanted to ask her about it some more, but felt that right now he should listen to her advice and do as she said. Especially since he could hear the sound of Luna's boots walking down the hall and down the stairs as she grumbled angrily under her breath.

Clyde finally broke the silence by closing the door and asking, "What? What just happened right there?"

Lincoln shrugged and said, "She must not be dealing with this very well right now. Luna wasn't handling it well either."

He then went on to explain the ways that Luna had been trying to ignore Lincoln earlier that day. Some of it made Clyde feel a little bad for Luna, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel a little anger towards her either. Lincoln and Luna were supposed to be very close and the idea that she would straight up ignore him in his time of need just didn't sit right with him.

Before he could ask Lincoln more, Lincoln sat up and said, "But lets not dwell on that for now. For right now lets get to that cake before Luan gets any angrier and changes her mind."

Clyde agreed and grabbed the cake from off of the desk and the duo then dug into it with their bare hands, with Clyde assisting Lincoln so that he didn't miss any pieces.

* * *

After some time had passed, the two boys lied back on Lincoln's bed just savoring the sweet taste of the cake they had had recently consumed. Suffice it to say, the balance of the two different kinds of chocolate had been pleasurable to their taste buds that even after the cake was gone, they could still sense it's delicate flavor upon their tongues. They wanted nothing more than for this feeling to last forever and remain in their sugar induced comas. The boys swore that the cake had overwhelmed their senses as Clyde could swear that some cartoon dogs were playing tricks with his mind and Lincoln could hear a pinging sound that continued to echo on and on. And even as he tried to regain his senses, the pinging just continued to ring in his ears and ring and ring.

That was when Lincoln began to notice that the pinging sounded awfully familiar and he felt that he had heard it many times before. Then he got the sense that it wasn't something that he was simply imagining, there actually was a pinging sound in the room and it was coming from his desk. That's when it suddenly hit him.

Clyde was hearing it too and was already pulling himself up and looked over at Lincoln's desk. With everything that had been happening for the past twelve hours, Lincoln had completely forgotten that he had left his laptop open the night before and apparently someone had turned it on too. Clyde had been focusing on Lincoln and the comics so much that he hadn't even noticed it himself.

"Hey Lincoln? You know that your laptop is on right? And someone's trying to call over it too," Clyde stated.

Lincoln shot up and said, "My laptop's on? Who turned it o-"

Lincoln then recalled something that had happened earlier that morning. While he had been in and out of sleep earlier that morning, he could recall hearing what sounded like the startup sound of his laptop, but he had thought that he had imagined it. But thinking back to it now, it was clear to him that someone had flipped it on and not turned it off again. And he had a good idea as to who did.

"Lynn," Lincoln groaned out loud and clenched his fists. "I told her to not touch my stuff in here if she was going to stay in here. Figures that she wouldn't listen to me."

"Uh Lincoln, I know that you want to rant about your sister right now, but your laptop is still pinging," Clyde pointed out while Lincoln ranted.

Lincoln sweat dropped and said, "Please don't be Ronnie Anne, please don't be Ronnie Anne. I can't let her see me like this, but I can't keep her waiting."

"Hey hey, it's no sweat buddy. I can cover for you while she's trying to call," Clyde offered.

Lincoln smiled and said, "Thanks buddy. I'll go wait out in the hall until you're done."

Now Lincoln didn't need to be able to see to find his bedroom door, he knew the room like the back of his hand. He quickly, yet carefully scrambled up from his bed and shuffled over to the door, grabbed the knob and...

 _SNAP_

"Dangit!" Lincoln cried out as he felt the door knob snap off in his hand.

Clyde looked at the broken knob in Lincoln's hand and said, "Yeah your parents should really get some professionals to fix up this house."

"We'd need to take out a loan to be able to fix everything in this house. I'll just hide under the bed," Lincoln said and then quickly ducked down and hid underneath his bed.

The laptop continued to ping and the screen on it was sending the request and was asking them to either accept the request or deny it. Clyde took a couple of deep breaths as he prepared to hit 'Accept'.

"Okay Clyde, you can keep her distracted," Clyde muttered to himself and clicked the 'Accept' icon.

As he did, the camera feed from Lincoln's computer activated and the person who had sent the request appeared on screen. On the screen was a preteen Latino girl, about the same age as both Lincoln and Clyde and was wearing her signature purple hoodie and blue denim shorts.

Clyde gulped, broke out into a nervous sweat and said, "Hey there Ronnie Anne."

Now he and many other kids from school knew that Ronnie Anne could have a pretty nasty temper. It didn't scare him as bad now as it did before as she lived in the next state down now, but he still feared the kind of temper that she could unleash through the computer call.

Ronnie Anne looked back at him and said, "Oh hey Clyde. What are you doing there?"

Clyde could feel the sweat roll down the back of his neck and said, "Just hanging out you know. How's Chicago?"

Ronnie Anne shrugged and said, "Eh kinda boring. It's been snowing here for a couple of days now and we can barely leave the shop. Not much happens except for when the El-Train goes by the apartment, then we get a few seconds that feel like a mini-earthquake."

Just as she said that though, some squealing could be heard as the sound of metal screeching against metal could be heard outside and was progressively getting louder and louder.

"Oh speak of the devil," Ronnie Anne said as the room suddenly began to shake a bit with her desk and the items on top of it rattling until the commuter train was far enough away that the vibrations no longer effected them.

Clyde gave her a weird look and asks, "Doesn't that bother you?"

Ronnie Anne shrugged and said, "You get used to it. Hey is Lincoln there? I kinda wanted to see what he's been up to."

"Oh well as you can see, he's not here right now," Clyde informed her and stepped out of the way to show her the empty room.

Ronnie Anne laughed and said, "Yeah I can kinda see that lame brain. Where is he right now?"

Now Clyde began to sweat a little bit more. He had no idea what to say and his mind kept drawing a blank as to what he SHOULD say. All possible scenarios wouldn't work as she would easily catch onto what he was doing. Suffice it to say Clyde was stuck and instead of acting rational. he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"HE'S IN THE BATHROOM!" Clyde suddenly blurted out.

'Oh good going genius,' Clyde admonished himself in his mind.

Lincoln himself was mentally facepalming through this whole exchange. He knew that Clyde didn't work well under pressure and knew that this probably wouldn't have been a good idea at all. But he didn't want Ronnie Anne to start going crazy over his current condition. But he was starting to believe that that would have been better than Clyde trying to cover for him and bombing pretty badly at it.

Ronnie Anne raised one eye brow and asked, "He's in the bathroom? Why is that making you nervous?"

Clyde gulped and said, "Nervous? Who said I'm nervous? It can't be me, because I'm not nervous."

Ronnie Anne sighed and said, "Clyde, I'm not blind. I can see you sweating up a storm and that smile you have on is only confirming my suspicions."

Clyde began to stammer and was trying to find the right words to use. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the proper words out. Lincoln still sat underneath his bed, listening to Clyde ramble on. He couldn't let his best friend suffer like this and have to incur the wrath of Ronnie Anne Santiago.

With a sigh, Lincoln pulled himself out from under his bed and said, "Okay Clyde, that's enough. No use in trying to hide this any longer."

Lincoln grabbed the side of his bed and began to pull himself back up to his full height, almost stumbling as he tried to reach out for Clyde's shoulder. Clyde was able to get up from his seat and assist Lincoln before he could fall over though. Ronnie Anne watched as Lincoln tried to stand up and wondered what exactly was going on. It wasn't until she was finally able to get a proper view of his face did she see the bandage that was wrapped around Lincoln's head and was hiding his eyes from sight.

"Lincoln? Is that you?" she asked curiously.

Clyde helped Lincoln into the seat and turned him towards the screen, despite the fact that Lincoln couldn't see it.

"Yep, unfortunately," Lincoln said with a sigh.

Ronnie Anne's jaw just dropped at the sight and asked, "What the heck happened to you? Why are you wearing a bandage on your head?"

Lincoln gulped as Ronnie Anne asked those two big questions. What would he say and would she react? Would she be upset? Would she be angry? Would she snap at him? Or would she simply turn him away completely? He didn't think she would turn him away, but recalling the events with Luna earlier that day made him feel a little unsure.

"Did one of your sisters do something to you? Was it Lynn?" Ronnie Anne asked with anger growing in her voice.

Lincoln began sweating himself as he heard Ronnie Anne's temper beginning to flicker.

"What? No, it was-" he began before Ronnie Anne cut him off.

"Was it Chandler? Because I swear, I will come back over there and clobber him good in the eyes if he's responsible," Ronnie Anne stated before Lincoln cut her off this time.

"Ronnie Anne it was an accident," Lincoln stated out loud.

Ronnie Anne wasn't buying it however as she tsk'd and said, "Yeah sure. Whatever he did you can tell me. No one messes with my lame-o but me."

Lincoln groaned and said, "Ronnie Anne it really was an accident. I tried to help my dad with the furnace last night and it backfired. Metaphorically and literally as you can see here. But sadly I can't even see anything right now."

Ronnie Anne's mouth suddenly just hung open at Lincoln's quick explanation. He then took a few minutes to explain everything to her, just as he had done with Clyde. Ronnie Anne listened intently as Lincoln explained and tried to remain straight faced through the whole thing, despite the fact that Lincoln wouldn't have been able to see it.

"So we'll find out this Friday if it's permanent or not. Until then I just have to wait and hope for the best," Lincoln finished off.

Ronnie Anne nodded and took a few breaths.

"Well that sucks that that happened. I can't imagine how it must feel for you," Ronnie Anne said and put on a faux smile that only Clyde could see. Clyde knew Ronnie Anne well enough to know what that meant.

"So I just have one question for you guys," Ronnie Anne stated.

Clyde gulped and began to duck down, while Lincoln could feel the goosebumps begin to form on his body as he had a good feeling as to what was coming up next.

"And what is that?" Lincoln asked and grinned sheepishly.

Ronnie Anne took a sharp breath and said, "WHY DID YOU GUYS TRY TO HIDE THAT FROM ME?! YOU REALLY THINK THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT I SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO KNOW ABOUT?! I THOUGHT YOU GUYS WERE BETTER THAN THAT."

Lincoln fell backwards onto Clyde, but the pain that followed was nothing compared to the cringe that they both felt from Ronnie Anne's scolding.

Clyde stuck his head up and said, "Okay I'll admit, we deserved that."

"Ditto!" Lincoln agreed.

Clyde helped Lincoln back up as Ronnie Anne continued to vent.

"Way to keep me in the loop guys. How could you do that to me?" she demanded.

Clyde looked at Lincoln a little uneasily. That hadn't wanted her to know because they knew her reaction might not have been the greatest, as they had quickly found out earlier. But they knew she had a point as well. She should have been allowed to know.

Lincoln sighed again and said, "You're right. Sorry Ronnie Anne, we just didn't want you to get alarmed about this."

Ronnie Anne nodded with an angry expression still on her face and said, "You're right, I probably would have been alarmed about that. In fact I WAS alarmed about this, but I am more upset that you guys tried to lie to me. This is something I need to know, especially if there's a chance it might not change. Doesn't that matter?"

"Sorry about that too," Clyde added.

Ronnie Anne pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "Look guys, no more hiding these things from me please. Keep me informed of this stuff would ya? If something bad has happened, I need to know about it. Especially life changing stuff. GOT IT?"

The duo nodded sheepishly to answer her. Ronnie Anne's angry expression faded and she smiled again.

"Good. I'm glad we came to an understanding," she said.

As she said that, a knocking was heard at Ronnie Anne's door followed by her mother's voice saying, "Ronalda, lunch is ready."

Ronnie Anne looked to the door and said, "Okay, I'll be right there."

She looked back to her computer screen and said, "Sorry guys, I gotta go. But please promise me, NO MORE SECRETS! Because if I find out that you guys have been keeping more secrets from me, I will personally come back to Royal Woods and kick both your butts. Got that?"

The boys nodded fearfully under Ronnie Anne's stern lecture, knowing that she didn't truly mean it.

She smiled and said, "Good. Smell you lame brains later."

And with that, she turned off her laptop and the screen went black. The duo sighed in relief as the buzzing from the computer screen went silent.

"Aww man, glad that's over. She could have gotten angrier at us than that. Even though we had it coming," Clyde said in relief.

Lincoln laughed and said, "Yeah. It is good to hear from her now and then though."

Clyde laughed and said, "Dude just admit it. You totally miss her."

Lincoln shrugged and said, "What? She was just a really cool girl. A really cool girl that knew how to have fun. Who wouldn't miss someone like that?"

The boys shared a laugh together, until there came a gentle knocking at Lincoln's door.

"Lincoln? Clyde? Dad say's that Lunch is ready and to come down now dudes," came Luna's voice.

Both boys pulled themselves off of the ground and Lincoln grabbed the cane that the doctor had given him, but as Clyde reached for the door handle, he had forgotten one big thing.

"Uh Luna, do you think you can open the door from that side? The door knob broke off on our end," Clyde asked.

They both could hear Luna groan on the other side and they swore that they could hear her say, "Not again." She reached for the door knob and tried to turn it.

 _SNAP!_

There suddenly came the familiar sound of metal snapping off of the door.

"DANG IT!" all three said at once.

* * *

 **Finally done. Yeah, from now on I will fully plan out my chapters before I write them. It's just easier and less of a hassle when you write yourself into a corner.**

 **I decided to put Ronnie Anne in Chicago, because as I recall from the special, Relative Chaos, that their relatives lived in another state and the closest city to Michigan with an El-Train in it is Chicago. So I decided to roll with it.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay I just have to say, I am pretty impressed with the new episodes this past week. We've had a reference to Pink Floyd (one of my top five favorite bands), an episode where the girls realize they screwed something up for Lincoln and made things up to him, Lisa finally has a good episode of her own, and an episode about Luan where she learns that her comedy does hurt the others at times. I have to say, I've been waiting for episodes like that. Yes Man (IMO) even makes up for one of two certain episodes this season. Just need one more to make it equal.**

 **Also has anyone else here seen the commercial for the upcoming Halloween special? All I gotta say is, that commercial makes me extremely excited for it. It's going to be incredible, I can already feel it.**

 **Enough jive, let's get into the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House**

* * *

Lori sat at one of the empty tables inside of Gus' Games and Grub with her arms crossed as she tapped her foot against the floor impatiently. The arcade was mostly empty right now which wasn't a common sight, but it was most likely like this because of the low temperatures outside. The layer of frost that kept forming on the outer windows were evidence of that.

Normally Lori would have driven to work and driven home, but she knew that her mother needed Vanzilla today so that hadn't been an available option. When Vanzilla wasn't available she normally opted to walk home as it wasn't too far from home, hell Lincoln could walk the distance on a regular day and he was lazy half the time. But because of the biting cold and the ice that kept forming on the sidewalk, she wasn't prepared to take the chance. She was at the very least glad that the roads had been treated properly and were regularly being treated again and again.

She had already called her mother and her mother had told her that she would be there to pick her up in a bit. So now she sat with growing impatience as her wait had stretched on. In the time she had been waiting, she'd already eaten her free pizza slices and was saving her soda for Lincoln, figuring that he could use one right about now. As she had talked with her mother, she had been told that Lincoln had already been to the doctor and that her mother would explain more on the drive home.

Suffice it to say that it wasn't just the ride home that she was eagerly waiting for.

She had just begun to tap her fingers on the table when her phone suddenly began to go off. At first thought she had thought it was her mother calling her back to explain what was taking so long. That would have been fine for Lori but as she took a glance at the screen, her look of annoyance suddenly formed into a wide grin as she accepted the call.

"Hello? Bobby? Boo Boo Bear?" Lori cried out happily with tears in her eyes as a young Latino man appeared on her phone screen.

He waved at her and said, "Hey babe."

Lori couldn't help but sigh happily at the sound of his nickname for her and vice versa and she even hugged her phone to emphasize her feelings for the young man.

Bobby rubbed the back of his head and said, "Sorry for not replying earlier, but I had to help the family around the house. We're trying to keep the place patched up and keep the snow from falling in through the ceiling. It's been coming down a bit hard here today and the trains passing by really don't help."

Lori couldn't help but giggle a little bit. She knew that trying to keep the place together wasn't funny as she had the same problem at home, but for some reason Bobby's charm helped make it feel a little bit better. Bobby even laughed along with her a little.

"So are you feeling better now babe? Your texts looked a little upsetting last night," Bobby asked.

Lori was about to answer him, but suddenly Bobby shifted a little bit and she could see some the area behind him. He was sitting in the family's living room, but she got a good glance of the dining area behind him, she spotted Ronnie Anne sitting at the table over a plate of food. The glum look that adorned her face however made Lori legitimately curious, especially given how close the girl was to Lori's brother.

Bobby's face reappeared on screen and said, "Sorry about that babe. Just had to make myself a little more comfortable."

Lori didn't respond immedietly and Bobby suddenly frowned.

"Babe? You feeling okay?" Bobby asked.

"Huh?" Lori suddenly stated and focused back on Bobby.

She shook her head clear and said, "Sorry Boo Boo Bear, but I noticed Ronnie Anne over your phone and something looked wrong. Is she okay?"

Booby suddenly looked over his shoulder at his little sister and said, "Oh... yeah. She said that she is, but I don't know if she is. She came to lunch like that and she said that she had just called over to you guys. She said everything is cool and that nothing happened, but now I'm doubting that. Is something going on Lori?"

Of course, Lori should have realized that. Ronnie Anne called Lincoln every now and then since their move to Chicago to talk to him and stay connected. She knew what Ronnie Anne truly felt about Lincoln and even encouraged their relationship. She must have already found out what had happened to him.

Lori sighed and said, "Okay before I tell you what happened let me just assure you, it most likely has nothing to do with Lincoln saying something wrong to her. You see..."

Lori winced as she tried to mull over in her mind on what she was going to say to Bobby. It wasn't like this was a common thing she told him about, so it was difficult to think of what to say.

"Babe?" Bobby asked again.

"Well you see... Lincoln kind of... had an accident last night," Lori finally stated.

Bobby heard what she said and as his mind digested her words, his eyes suddenly shot open and he said, "An accident? Lincoln? What happened? Is he okay or is it worse than that? Tell me he's not dying."

Thankfully Lori knew that it wasn't THAT bad.

"Now Bobby it's okay, he's not dying or anything like that," Lori said but suddenly said in her mind, 'At least I'm sure he's not.'

Bobby began to breathe a little better, but he still seemed a little concerned. Not surprising as he and Lincoln were known to hang quite often when Lori wasn't able to go out with him, so the two of them had a bond with each other as well as her.

"Still babe, if something's wrong with him I'd like to know," Bobby said back.

Lori now knew she couldn't hold it back anymore. She explained to him about the events of the night before and the circumstances that had led up to the accident. Including the vote and her involvement of Lincoln being sent to help their father fix the furnace. She had expected Bobby to be upset with her over it, but thankfully he looked a little understanding.

"Wow... that's kind of... rough. It was just an accident though. It's not like you wished that it would happen and you didn't know that it would either," Bobby responded to her.

"Yeah. Tell me about it," Lori answered back as she sank back and could feel her heart beginning to pound.

Bobby took a moment to let this information sink in.

"It's just hard to take this all in. I mean, that's kind of big. Is he going to be alright?" Bobby asked.

Lori groaned and rubbed her temples as she said, "Well I don't know, not yet at least. I called my mom earlier to pick me up and she said that she had already taken him to the doctor. I'm just waiting for her to pick me up and tell me what they said. I don't mind waiting for my ride, but it sucks knowing that anything could be going on right now and, literally, not knowing what everyone else already does."

Bobby pondered for a moment on what Lori was saying, but didn't quite understand everything she was saying.

"Uh... could you repeat that last part babe?" Bobby asked.

Lori rolled her eyes and was about to answer him, when she heard the sound of a horn honking outside. She raised her eyes and looked out to see her mother waiting in Vanzilla outside and staring back at her.

Lori sighed in relief and spoke out, 'Finally' in her mind.

"Sorry Boo Boo Bear, but my ride's here. I'll call you back when I get home and fill you in on everything. And I mean everything," she said.

Bobby sighed sadly himself and said, "Okay, but please tell me everything. No matter how harsh or painful it is."

Lori smiled at him in the feed and said, "I will Boo Boo Bear."

Bobby smiled a little bit and said, "I know you have to go, but I just don't want to hang up."

Lori knew where this was going as they usually played this some times and said, "I know, but one of us has to right now. Love you Boo Boo Bear."

With that, Lori hung up her phone and back in Chicago, Bobby stared at the screen of his phone and said, "I can't believe she hung up on me."

Lori set her phone back into her purse as her mother honked again. Lori grabbed the soda on the table, tightening her coat around her as she prepared to step out into the cold afternoon air. As soon as she had flung open the doors to the store, she dashed madly over to Vanzilla, nearly slipping on the icy sidewalk in the process. She caught herself on the van and threw the passenger side door open, practically throwing herself into the seat beside her mother. Even though she had only been out in the cold for a few seconds, it was just long enough for the cold air to slash at the skin of her face and begin seeping through her winter clothing. But now she sat comfortably in the front seat of Vanzilla with the car heater blasting warm air directly into her face, comforting her as she sighed contently and nestled into her seat.

"You cold?" her mother asked sarcastically.

Lori gave her mother a cold stare and said, "Ha ha! Very funny mom."

Lori pulled on her seat belt as her mother smiled slyly and put the car into drive.

"Sorry for the wait honey. They had to close off a couple of streets because of some maintenance work on the roads. Apparently the ice under the road broke some pipes and I had to take a different route to get here. Practically had to go all around the area," Rita explained as she began to drive off.

Lori wasn't bothered by the reason or the amount of time she had had to wait for her mother to come and get her. Instead it was something else that had been bothering her for much of the day.

"Hey mom? I have a question to ask," Lori said.

Her looked at her out of the corner of her eye and asked, "What is it?"

Lori took a deep breath, this was the big question.

"How is Lincoln's condition?" she asked.

* * *

Back at home, things were operating as normally as they could. The family plus Clyde had already finished lunch and Lynn Sr. had made sure to take a plate up to Luan despite the fact that she had claimed that she wasn't hungry. He figured that she'd need something after performing that morning, not to mention that she had taken a chance of walking home in the bitter cold. She had at the very least thanked him for the plate, but doubted that she would be eating it.

Back downstairs, Lynn Jr. had decided to test a little something with Lincoln. They currently sat in the dining room as she took her baseball and bounced it off the wall. Every time it did, Lincoln perked his ears up and tried to catch the ball as it came towards him. He even managed to catch it a few times.

"Hey that's not bad Linc," Lynn said as he managed to catch the ball a second time in a row.

Lincoln handed it back to her and said, "Thanks Lynn. I can hear it hit the wall and coming back towards me."

Lynn bounced the ball against the wall again, but Lincoln it missed this time.

"Swing and a miss," Lynn teased.

"Shoot," Lincoln muttered as Lynn picked the ball up again.

Lynn bounced the ball again, and Lincoln even caught this one.

"Not bad buddy. You actually got this down," Clyde complimented.

Lincoln smiled and said, "Thanks. There actually feels like an advantage in this whole thing. I can't see the ball, but I can feel it coming towards me. I can do this a lot better now than when I could actually see it."

Lynn laughed and said, "You cut off one sense and the rest tend to get stronger. How do you think I got so good at this kind of thing?"

"I thought it was all the practicing you do," Clyde said.

Lynn shrugged and said, "Well yeah that's true it takes practice to be this awesome, but a good way to practice for practice is to test your other senses. Try doing trick shots and tossing the ball while blindfolded. It creates an extra challenge, but gives a whole new advantage."

Lynn bounced the ball against the wall again and Lincoln missed this time. He handed it back over to Lynn and they tried again with another miss. Leni suddenly walked into the room and saw what was going on with her eyes growing in alarm and she suddenly gasped.

"LYNN STOP!" Leni suddenly screamed out loud and suddenly rushed over.

"HEY WHAT GIVES?!" Lynn hollered out as Leni grabbed her hand and took the baseball from her grip.

Leni shook her head and said, "You shouldn't be tossing the ball at Lincoln when he's like this. He can't even see the ball coming at him."

"It's okay Leni. I can actually hear it in the air as it's coming to me," Lincoln said back to her.

"You can hear the air? What's it saying? Is it being mean to you?" Leni asked.

Lynn, Lincoln and Clyde all frowned at Leni's statement. They knew that Leni meant well and they appreciated her for that, but at the same time they knew her brain didn't have the power to fully understand what they had meant.

"Leni, we're just testing how to see how well Lincoln can hear. He can hear the ball as it comes towards him in the air," Lynn explained as clearly as she could.

Leni gasped and said, "Lynn, it's not his hearing that's the problem. It's his sight."

Lynn frowned even further and said, in her mind of course, 'Well what was I expecting?'

Lincoln groaned and said, "Leni I know you mean well, but we're doing this test me. Lynn's just trying to help me."

Leni gave a glare at Lincoln and said, "By nearly hitting you with the ball? Doesn't sound like a very good way to test someone to me. I mean where are sheets of paper and the questions on the paper? How can it be a test without questions?"

They all just frowned again.

"Leni it's nothing dangerous. I'm just tossing it light enough so that Lincoln can catch it. Even if it flew into his face it would barely even hurt," Lynn stated still trying to defend herself.

Leni still shook her head and said, "It's still too dangerous. You never know if you may throw it too hard or it just suddenly slips out and flies into someone's face."

Leni even swung her arms around to emphasize her point. But just as she had finished speaking, Leni had accidently loosened her grip on the ball and it flew out of her hand a little harder than she intended and it flew into the air... and straight into Clyde's face, knocking him out of the chair.

"Oof! ARGH!" Clyde cried out as the ball struck and knocked him flat on the floor.

As Lincoln, Lynn and Leni all heard the crash and as Lynn and Leni watched, the trio cringed as Clyde hit the floor and began to groan.

Leni squinted and said, "Ooh. Sorry about that Clyde. Do you need an ice pack or maybe a tissue for your nose?"

Clyde's leg twitched and he said, "Both please."

Leni dashed off for the kitchen as Lynn looked over Clyde and Lincoln listened to him on the ground.

"Clyde? Are you okay?" Lincoln asked.

Clyde gave an OK sign with his hand and said, "I'll be okay. I've had worse you than this know. Just please don't let Lori see me like this."

Some lights shined in through the window and Lynn looked out to see Vanzilla pulling into the driveway. She could even see Lori sitting in the passenger seat as she was unbuckling her seat belt.

"Yeah about that," Lynn stated.

"She's back isn't she?" Clyde said as he pulled himself up off the floor.

Lynn nodded and said, "Do yourself a favor and don't look out the window. Look at the wall."

Clyde did as she advised and kept his gaze away from the window. Even as the front door opened, he kept his focus on the wall in front of him. Even began to hum to himself to keep from hearing her voice. He looked at Lynn who gave him a thumbs up in response.

Lori walked in slowly through the door and set her winter coat on a rack by the living room door. She took one glance into the dining room to see Clyde looking at the wall and she could hear him humming to himself. That made her feel a little more comfortable. But as she switched her glance and saw her brother sitting nearby, she couldn't help but feel her heart twitching and simply turned towards the stairs.

"Hey Lori. How was work?" Lincoln called out.

Lori stammered and began to sweat.

"Uhh... i-it was j-just fine. I-i'll be up in my room if anyone needs me," Lori answered and quickly rushed up the stairs and out of everyone's sight.

Lynn watched Lori retreat up the stairs while everyone else in the living room did the same as Lincoln listened to her footfalls and even heard her door slam shut. Once she was gone from view, everyone went back to their usual routine.

Rita followed Lori in and was just in time to see Lori disappear around the corner of the upstairs hallway. Rita looked at her children doing their normal routine, but noticed the alarmed look on Lynn's face.

"Did I just miss something?" Rita asked.

Lynn looked back at her mother and said, "I'll say. Lori didn't try to insult us or order us about. That's not like her."

Rita sighed and said, "Well I did tell her about what the doctor had to say about your brother's condition. She was mostly quiet after that. She just said, 'oh' and then went back to her phone."

Lynn's look of alarm suddenly turned to a look of anger as her mother's words sank in. Right to the point where steam was practically coming out of her ears and her face was turning red.

"She didn't even care? Why that rotten little-," Lynn began until her father scolded her by calling out her name from the kitchen.

With her father's scolding, Lynn's face returned to it's normal color and she began to calm down again. But still retained an agitated look on her face.

"Still though. Why would she just-" Lynn began but was cut off.

"Not everyone can take this as well as you Lynn," Lincoln hollered out of nowhere.

Lynn looked at Lincoln in surprise. It wasn't common for Lincoln to snap like that and he did it always took her by surprise. And he was defending Lori at the same time as well right now.

"I know you're handling this well enough, but not everyone can and not everyone has," Lincoln added in.

Everyone in the living room could hear what Lincoln was saying and unbeknownst to everyone there, Luna began to cringe and wince. She even slinked down to prevent anyone from noticing the look on her face. Not to mention that they were all well aware of Luan's behavior by now, so it was an indicator to them that they were all feeling a bit differently about now. So it really shouldn't have been a surprise that Lori would probably react the way she did.

"Think I should go talk to her?" Rita asked.

Lincoln stood up from his chair and said, "No mom, I should go talk to her. I think we all know why she's upset."

Everyone else seemed okay with the plan so long as Lincoln didn't get himself killed by Lori. Not to mention they wanted someone other than Lynn going up there to talk to her. Last thing they needed right now was Lori going on a all out rampage against Lynn.

"Are you sure honey?" Rita asked.

"Lori will clobber you if you disturb her," Lana said from the couch.

"Not to mention yell like no tomorrow," Lola added as well.

Lincoln smirked and said, "I'll take my chances. If I'm right, I might just get through to her. That's why I'm a man with a plan."

Lincoln stood from his chair with his new cane, but just nearly smacked into the wall right next to the doorway. Thankfully Lynn was just able to nudge him to the side just in time to prevent a collision.

"Learn to use that stick properly lame-o. I can't protect you all the time," Lynn said in exasperation.

Lincoln couldn't help but blush and say, "Yeah... right."

Lincoln began tapping the cane against the ground as he turned to the right of the kitchen and slowly made his way up the stairs. Lynn watched him for a moment hoping that he wouldn't nearly hurt himself again. But she soon grew bored and as she turned around, she noticed that Clyde was still staring at the wall and humming to himself. Lynn rolled her eyes as she crossed over to him and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. Clyde jumped and hollered as a reaction of her touch.

"Clyde, it's okay now. Lori went upstairs a minute ago," she said to him.

Clyde sighed in relief and said, "Oh... good to know. Ow ow ow!"

Clyde winced as the pain began to return to where the ball had struck him earlier. Tears were even beginning to form in his eyes. That's when Lynn realized that Leni still hadn't returned with Clyde's ice pack.

Lynn sighed and said, "Don't move. I'll go see where Leni is with that ice pack."

Before Clyde could respond, Lynn went off towards the kitchen to try to find Leni. But as she went in, there was no sign of Leni anywhere but just her dad washing the dishes from lunch.

"Hey dad? Did Leni come through here?" Lynn asked.

Lynn Sr. looked at her and said, "She did a minute ago. I think she stepped outside though with a bowl of water."

"Why did she-," Lynn was about to ask, but decided to check it out for herself.

She crossed to the window and looked out to see Leni standing in the middle of the backyard in her winter clothing with a bowl of water in her hands. A large grin adorned her face.

Lynn creaked open the back door and said, "Leni? What are you doing?"

Leni looked back at her and said, "Oh we were out of ice so I decided to come out here and make some myself. Just a few more minutes and I'll have an ice pack ready."

Lynn sighed and closed the door, opting to just pull an ice pack out of the fridge for Clyde.

* * *

In the meantime in her room, Lori was going through the photos on her phone and was even ignoring the messages that Bobby was sending her right now. Instead she was looking through pictures that she had saved on her phone. Many of them were pictures of her and Lincoln during some of their happier moments. In other words, moments where she wasn't being a complete control freak. She wouldn't tell Lincoln about it, but she had actually managed to save a few of the pictures that Lincoln had accidentally deleted some time ago. Maybe if things turned out for the best, she'd share that information with him.

Once she had come upstairs a little bit ago, she had paused at Luan and Luna's bedroom door and swore that she could hear sniffling coming from behind it. She had seen Luna downstairs so she knew it had to be Luan in there. She had wanted to see how Luan was, but for some reason decided against and decided to just focus on herself for right now. So here she was, lying on her bed and going through her phone of old memories.

She was just getting to the last pictures, when she heard someone knocking at her door.

She looked at the door and said, "Go away."

The person on the other side knocked again and said, "Lori it's just me."

Lori kept looking at the door and knew that voice anywhere.

"Lincoln?" she asked with some sense of caring in her voice.

She wasn't sure why, but Lincoln coming to her right now did make her feel a little more calm and even gave a small pang of happiness. But as she quickly began to recall that he was the source of her currently mixed feelings, she couldn't help but feel a little bit of resentment return to her.

She glared at the door and said, "What do you want twerp?"

Lincoln took a deep breath and said, "I just want to talk. You sounded... not yourself and I figured that maybe I should talk to you."

Lori growled and continued her hard glare at the door. Why wouldn't the little twerp just leave her alone?

"And why do you think that I want to talk to YOU right now?" she asked bitterly.

Lori couldn't see it, but Lincoln shook his head at her response. He knew Lori was upset and wanted to be left alone. But he knew better than to just let her wallow in her low state as he knew from experience that it would most likely result in her feeling worse and worse. Luan wouldn't be an exception either, but the agitation he had heard from her earlier was too much right now would prevent her from even listening. So he would try with her at a later time.

Lincoln took another breath and said to Lori, "Because both you and me know why you're feeling upset."

Lori listened to what Lincoln was saying and wanted to argue with him. But everything that she could think of died pretty quickly and she just couldn't find the urge to argue with him. So she rose from her bed, sighing in the process and walked over to her bedroom door. She opened it up to Lincoln standing on the other side.

"You've got two minutes," she said a little more harshly than necessary or intended.

Lincoln smiled internally and followed Lori into her room and she made sure to close the door behind her.

She stood in front of him and said, "Well? What is it?"

Lincoln was trying to process in his mind on what he should say to her. He had come up here with the intention of talking with her, but in the process he had forgotten to figure out on what he was going to say to her. He thought he'd be able to wing it, but now his mind was drawing a complete blank.

"Well?" Lori urged.

Lincoln knew he had to say something, so he said the very first thing that came to his mind.

"Are you feeling okay?" Lincoln asked.

Lori figured that Lincoln would ask her that question and the truth was that she really didn't know how to answer it. She knew from what her mother had told her earlier that there was a chance that he would be okay in the end, but at the same time she knew there was a chance that he wouldn't. Sure she viewed him as a pest at times and sometimes was even annoyed or disgusted by some of his antics. But at the same time he was her brother (her only brother at that) and the idea that he may or may not be the same after everything was something that she had a hard time accepting.

So to answer his question, she said the only thing that she could think of.

"What do you think?" she answered with her own question.

Suffice it to say, that kind of response was exactly what Lincoln was expecting.

"You want to talk about it?" Lincoln asked her.

Truth be told, Lori really did want to talk about it, but she didn't know what to say after that. After all she had spent years lording over the other children of the household, so moments like this felt a little awkward to her. There was only thing she could do now at this point. She approached Lincoln, grabbed him by the shoulder... and wrapped her arms about him.

She knelt down to his level and grasped him even tighter and held him tight. Lincoln was surprised and while he did like the gesture, her tight hold on him began to make him feel a tad bit uncomfortable. He even began to squirm in her grip a bit. But to make matters worse, he could sense her beginning to heave and the last thing he wanted or even needed right now was to hear her cry.

"Lori, I get what you're feeling right now, but I'm having a hard time moving and I think I'm beginning to lose my breath. Please let go," Lincoln asked her innocently.

Lori looked down at the top of Lincoln's head and quickly did as he had asked.

"Sorry Lincoln it's just... hard is all," she admitted whole heartedly and guided him over to Leni's bed and sat him down on it.

"Okay twerp, you've got my attention," Lori said as she sat down beside him and even took his hand in her own.

Lincoln groaned and said, "Are you ever going to stop calling me that?"

Lori chuckled a little as she wiped away some tears that had begun to form in her eyes.

"Sorry, it's a force of habit. Once you start you don't really stop," Lori stated as she rubbed the hair on the top of his head.

Lincoln couldn't argue with that. He had a crazy habit of reading comic books in his underwear anywhere in the house. It drove his sisters (most of them at least) crazy when he did that. But as Lori said, it's hard to break a habit after so long.

"So what happened to you? You sounded fine this morning, but now it's like you're worse than before. What happened?" Lincoln asked her.

Lori took a breath as Lincoln finished and said, "Well I got a call from Bobby while I was waiting for mom at work. I saw Ronnie Anne over the video phone and Bobby said she had called you."

That wasn't the only reason she felt upset, but figured that she didn't need to tell Lincoln everything. Especially since she assumed that their mother had filled them in what she had told Lori during the drive home.

Lincoln heard what Lori had told him and said, "Yeah it's true... she called me."

"And?" Lori demanded sternly.

Lincoln cringed and said, "I tried it hide the truth from her."

As he said that, he suddenly felt Lori's grip on his hand suddenly tighten immensely, causing a small amount of pain. And even though he couldn't see it, he could feel that Lori was giving him a hard glare.

"You tried to do what?" Lori asked through clenched teeth.

Lincoln knew that she would likely try to react like that and braced himself for the scolding he was sure to get. But instead, he heard Lori take a deep breath as she began to count to ten. Her grip on his hand began to loosen some, but he could still sense the anger from her so he knew that she was not done yet.

"Lincoln, why would you do that?" Lori asked in a sharp tone.

Lincoln shrugged and said, "I don't know. I didn't know how she would react and I didn't want her freaking out over it."

"It was still a dishonest thing to do Lincoln Loud. I know that I've had my fair share of dishonesty, but even I know better than to lie to a close friend like that," Lori scolded him.

Lincoln let his head droop and he said, "I know. I just-"

"I know you wanted to spare her feelings about the accident, but you may have hurt her even more by trying to hide it. She might not know if she can trust you now. Next time she calls you, or better yet, you call her, you better apologize to her on the spot. Got that?" Lori said as she continued her scolding.

Lincoln nodded and said, "I will. I'm sorry Lori."

Lori gave an approving nod (out of habit) and said, "Good, but it's not me that you need to apologize to."

"I know," Lincoln said with a sigh.

Lori placed both of her hands on Lincoln's shoulders and said, "Lincoln I know this is rough on you, it's rough on all of us and we don't know what it's like for you. But please, don't make mistakes along the way."

Lincoln nodded and said, "I'll try not to."

Lori gave a faint smile and pulled Lincoln into her arms again.

"Glad to hear it twerp," Lori said.

Lincoln groaned again and said, "Seriously Lori?"

Lori shrugged and said, "Just calling it as it is. You're a twerp, but you MY twerp. And I can't let go of that."

This time Lincoln couldn't help but let out a chuckle and say, "Well I can't argue there."

Lori chuckled as well and said, "Good."

She got up from the bed and pulled Lincoln with her to her bedroom door.

"Now please kindly get out of my room," Lori said, not truly trying to sound mean.

Lincoln still laughed as he was pulled along.

'Old habits die hard,' he thought as she opened the door.

But as the door creaked open, a certain someone who was leaving the bathroom next door happened to look in her direction as the door now hit the hallway wall.

"L-l-l-lori?" Clyde stuttered as he saw her.

'Crud! Not again,' Lincoln said in his mind as he heard the sound of a thick liquid pouring onto the floor.

"AHHH! MY SHOES!" Lori screamed out loud.

* * *

 **Well now Lori has had her moment with Lincoln and I tried to showcase more of her caring side. Especially when both Lincoln and Ronnie Anne are in the mix. It's obvious that Lori has a big caring side when it comes to her siblings despite her bossy nature and it really shows at times.**

 **Now if anyone is upset that Lori still calls Lincoln a twerp here, just hear me out on this. Whenever she calls him that on the show, I don't think she always does it to be mean to him but as a force of habit. I have an older sister myself, two as a matter of fact. My eldest used to call me a dweeb a lot when I was little. As we got older, it kind of stuck out of habit and it kind of became something like a nickname that she had for me. Sometimes she still calls me that, but now it's just so we can have a cheap laugh or two.**


	9. Chapter 9

**So I'm going to give everyone a heads up. I'm leaving for vacation on the 29th of this month and we'll be gone for about a week. I'm not going to have any internet access while I'm gone so work on this will be stalled for a bit. I will try to get another chapter of this one posted before I leave and I will certainly try to finish one of my other stories, Night of Terror, (my story for October) before then.**

 **So that's my heads up, let's get into the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House.**

* * *

Several hours passed and dinner time began to roll around. Clyde had already left for home an hour before, but made sure that Lincoln was going to be alright before he left for home. Now Lincoln sat back downstairs on the couch where most of the other girls were watching Operation: Dessert Storm. Even if he couldn't see the show, just the descriptions from the judges and the commentator for the show were enough to help him imagine what was going on. He honestly found a pretty cool way to view the show.

The only one missing from the group was Luan. No matter what anyone had tried, she wouldn't even step out of her room. Not even Luna could convince her to come out. Lucy had even tried to spy on her from the vents, but apparently Luan had anticipated that and had covered up the vent in the room with a poster or something to keep Lucy from looking in.

Whatever was going on, Luan was resorting to extreme measures to keep anyone from bothering her.

It was just as the program was wrapping up that their father announced that dinner was ready. Each one of them reluctantly got up from the couch and made their way towards the family dinning room, with Leni helping Lincoln along despite his protests that he could handle things himself. Suffice it to say, Leni ignored his protests and helped him along anyway.

They all sat in their regular places, with both parents (currently only their mother) sitting on one end, Lincoln sitting on the other end, and the rest of the girls sitting along the sides of the table. Their father walked in a moment or two later with the dishes containing tonight's dinner, consisting of turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes and peas. As he set them down, the girls and Rita loaded up their plates with the food. With the exception of one person who was currently missing.

"Hey wait, where's Luan?" Lynn Sr. asked.

"She won't come out of our room," Luna answered with a scowl.

Lynn Sr. sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his oven mitt clad hand.

"That girl has been shut up in her room ever since she got home. What is she even doing up there?" Lynn Sr. asked with frustration clearly evident in his voice.

Rita suddenly stood up from the table with a sigh and said, "Honey let me go talk to her. Maybe I can get her to come down. Or at the very least find out what's going on with her. You just make Lincoln's plate."

Lynn Sr. nodded as his wife made her way out of the room and up the stairs. He sighed and took the plate that sat in front of Lincoln and loaded some food onto it, being very careful to make sure certain foods were in a certain spots on the plate. He walked back over to Lincoln and set the plate of food down in front of him.

His father carefully adjusted the plate in front of his son and said, "Now son I want you to listen to me very carefully. I want you to think of this plate like a clock. The turkey meatloaf is at six o'clock, the mashed potatoes is at ten o'clock, and the peas are at two o'clock."

Leni looked at her father in confusion and then looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Wait, I thought dinner was at seven. We're having it at different times?" she said as she looked back at their father.

Lisa sighed and said, "No Leni, that's not what's going on. Lincoln can't see where the food on his plate is. Since he has to know where everything is located, he has to think of the plate like it's a clock. Everything on his plate is sitting in a different position like the numbers on a clock. When he's told where they are, he'll have an easier time finding them."

Leni looked back at Lincoln's plate, laughed and said, "Silly Lisa, he's not eating his food off of a clock. He's eating off of a plate."

Lisa rolled her eyes and with an annoyed groan she said, "Just forget it."

She then went back to eating as Leni shrugged and did the same. Lynn Sr. couldn't help but worry about Leni a little after that exchange, but turned his attention back to Lincoln to see if Lincoln understood.

"Do you understand it son?" Lynn Sr. asked him.

Lincoln nodded and said, "Given what you and Lisa just explained, I think I get it."

Lynn Sr. smiled and said, "Good. Now eat up." He even made sure to pat Lincoln's shoulder.

As Lynn Sr. turned his attention away from his son, Luna was pouring some gravy on her mashed potatoes. She turned her attention towards Lincoln as he was just starting to eat.

Knowing him, he'd want some gravy as well and said, "Hey bro? You want some gravy?"

Lincoln turned his head in the direction of her voice had come from and with a nod of his head he said, "Yes please."

"Glad to hear it," Luna said and then had the rest of the girls sitting with her pass the gravy boat down to him.

As the gravy boat was placed into Lincoln's hands, he prepared to pour the gravy out. That is until his father grabbed his hand and said, "Whoa son. Maybe you should let me take care of that for you."

Lincoln wanted to argue with his father that he could handle it himself. But before he could, Lynn Sr. took the gravy boat from Lincoln's hand and poured some gravy over his mashed potatoes for him.

"Want some of your meatloaf too?" his father asked.

Lincoln responded with a sigh and nodded his head. His father took notice and poured some gravy over the turkey meatloaf as well. As he finished, he patted the top of Lincoln's head and made sure to remove his oven mitt before taking his place at the head of the table. Before long, Rita returned with a blank looking Luan in tow. As they approached, the rest of the family took notice of the look on Luan's face and decided it would be best to not ask her any questions. At least not right now. Even Leni believed it would be best to not ask her anything right now.

For much of the meal, the family sat and ate in silence. Normally they would be a bit more active or at the very least talkative, but no one really felt like conversing or even being their usual energetic selves. Suffice it to say, everyone was feeling a tad bit uncomfortable and everyone understood why too. But they chose to remain silent and not address the elephant in the room.

Lincoln could hear the lack of activity around him. He understood why everyone was remaining silent and knowing that it was because of him really was rubbing him the wrong way. Even if it was really his fault, he couldn't help but feel upset at himself for it. So he figured that it would be best to at least try to break the silence.

"So dad. Where did you find out about that stuff about my plate?" Lincoln asked his father.

Rita looked up from her plate and said, "What stuff?"

"Dad taught about this thing with my plate," Lincoln said and then explained everything that his father and Lisa had said earlier.

Rita listened intently and then looked back to her husband.

"Where did you learn that?" Rita asked.

Lynn Sr. stammered a bit and said, "Well I had some time earlier so I decided to take a little time to see how parents with... blind children help their children with the effects of being unable to see. It was one of the things that they listed."

Lynn Sr. hated having to use the phrase "blind children" especially in front of Lincoln right now and had cringed as he had said it. But he knew that it was the only thing he could actually say to properly describe the things he had looked up.

Rita listened to what her husband had said and as she thought about it, she couldn't believe that she hadn't thought about doing the exact same thing earlier herself. After dinner she would certainly have to go and try to do just that.

"That's not a bad idea. I should have thought about doing that earlier. I'm glad that one of us decided to do that," Rita stated as she looked around the table.

Lynn Sr. looked around at his kids around the table. As he thought about it, he figured that they could all benefit from doing the same thing as well. As the doctor had said, there was a chance that Lincoln's condition COULD be permanent and if it was it would be better if they were prepared for that potential outcome. After all, why shouldn't they be prepared for the worst case scenario?

"In fact, girls, I think it would be best if you all learned a bit more on how to help your brother," Lynn Sr. announced from his seat.

Each of the girls looked up, a couple of them voicing protests while half of them seemed to be agreeing with their father's idea. The only ones who remained silent were Lily, who was too young to talk anyway, and the other being Luan, who was still sulking.

Lynn Sr. was happy to know that some of the girls were enthusiastic about the idea, but was at the same time disappointed in the rest. Lisa, Lola and Lana didn't really seem to be very keen on the idea. It's not that they didn't want to help, they'd be happy to, with the exception of Lisa who still found this whole thing to be a bit overblown. It's just that for Lola and Lana, Lincoln was their big brother and he was always there to help look after them. The idea of the roles being reversed just didn't bode well with them and still made them think of the harsh possibilities that were yet to come.

Lynn Sr. looked between the three girls and the stern looks he gave them left both Lana and Lola looking down at the floor in shame. But as he did the same with Lisa, she continued to remain stoic.

"Lisa? Do you have anything to say?" her father asked.

Lisa gave him a glance and said, "That I do not paternal unit."

"Even when it comes to helping out your brother?" Lynn Sr. asked with him starting to give Lisa a hard stare.

Lisa looked back and said, "Even if this does turn out to be a temporary thing, I think that it would be more beneficial for Lincoln to start learning how to handle things on his own in his current state. If anything, it might prove useful for any future scenarios."

Lynn Sr. sighed and was about to argue when Lincoln interrupted.

"Dad it's okay," Lincoln said.

Everyone, including Lisa, turned their heads in his direction. Thought Lisa was the only one who didn't look surprised.

"Dude, are you serious?" Lynn Jr. asked in surprise.

"She's talking about leaving you on your own bro," Luna added.

Lincoln shook his head and said, "No she's not. She's saying that I need to learn how to take care of myself if things don't get better for my eyes. I appreciate being helped, but there are some things I'd like to be able to do on my own."

He didn't want to tell them about some of the more obvious things he'd have to do. Like finding the bathroom or stuff like that.

"Still, you won't be able to learn them on your own," Lori added in as well.

"You needed my help to use your ears a bit better," Lynn Jr. said too.

He could hear someone getting up from their seat and walking behind him. He felt their arms wrap around him and rest their chin on the top of his head.

"Please let us help Linky," Leni said from above him.

Lincoln couldn't help but smile at her comforting embrace and even patted her arm with his hand a little. He knew they only wanted to help and he was happy about that. But at the same time, he didn't want to take time away from them. Sure he'd be willing to do just that if it meant that there was something for him in return, but at the same time he didn't want them fretting over him as well.

"I know. It's just...," Lincoln began before his mind began to draw a blank.

"At the very least, let us help you get started at it. We're a family, we should be helping each other instead of viewing this as a minor issue... Lisa," Rita said and then gave a hard glance at the second youngest of her children.

Lisa wasn't really bothered by the look that her mother was giving her. She at the very least had some satisfaction that Lincoln acknowledged her words as truth and was glad to see that someone in the family partially agreed with what she had to say. She merely finished the food on her plate and then excused herself from the table. After having cleared her dishes and depositing them in the kitchen sink, she passed through the dining room again and announced that she was returning to her room.

But as she exited the dining room and turned the corner, rendering her out of sight of the rest of the family, she stopped and looked back in. Or more specifially, at her brother. She peered at them and let out a sigh herself.

"Why must I be too afraid to express myself properly in front of them?" Lisa quietly asked herself before she proceeded up the stairs.

* * *

After dinner, the family began to pretty much part ways for the night. Lori and Leni had returned to their room and were reading from some of their magazines, deciding that they could wait a day or two before learning everything they would need to know about assisting Lincoln. In the meantime it was Luna and Lynn who were currently studying up on some of the sites that their father had visited earlier, making sure to take notes on some of the more important things.

Luan had returned to her and Luna's room, without saying a word throughout dinner apart from thanking their father for dinner. Suffice it to say, the rest of the family was less than pleased with her actions. Lola and Lana had decided to call it a night as well and were up in their room and at the same time Lily was being put to bed in her and Lisa's room as well.

As for Lucy, she was currently sitting with Lincoln on the couch as she watched Vampires of Melancholia. Lincoln wasn't really trying to pay attention to the show as he really had no interest in it. But Lucy was the only sibling that wasn't busy right now so he figured he could at the very least sit with her while she enjoyed her program. Lincoln wasn't really into vampires or werewolves that much either as he normally prefered ghosts. But he figured he should at least try to do something nice with her while he could. Even if the audio coming from the TV did make him want to beat his head against the wall.

Lucy looked over at her older brother and scooted a little closer to him. Of all of her siblings, Lincoln was the one that she felt the closest to. He understood her dark outlook on life and he almost always stood up for her. Even took the blame for the incident where she had clogged the toilet. She had tried to make it up to him, especially since he had to miss something he had been waiting all year for. But sometimes she felt that the comic she had given him just hadn't been enough. She'd find a way to make it up to him properly someday, she just wasn't sure how to yet.

After a while, commercial break came on and Lucy decided to turn more of her attention towards Lincoln.

"Hey Lincoln, can I ask you a question?" Lucy asked him.

Lincoln shrugged and said, "Wasn't that a question right there?"

Lucy did her best to suppress a laugh. Last thing she wanted anyone in the family to know, including Lincoln, is that she actually did have a real sense of humor. At the very least she found his jokes funnier than Luan's as he did come close to making her laugh at times. Whereas Luan just made her groan more often.

Instead of laughing, Lucy just sat back and said, "Sigh! Can I please ask A question?"

Lincoln nodded and said, "Go ahead."

"What's it like? You know, living in darkness," Lucy asked, hoping that it wouldn't upset Lincoln too much.

Last thing she wanted was to upset him. However, Lincoln could sense her apprehensiveness in her voice.

"You don't have to be nervous Lucy. To tell you the truth, it's kind of boring. I mean, I can smell things a little easier and food tastes a lot better now too," Lincoln answered.

"I thought dad was just getting better at his craft," Lucy said in response.

Lincoln laughed and said, "Well it could be that too. It's just, there are a lot of things I enjoyed doing and I need to be able to see to do them. With this though? I can't really do any of them. Can't watch anything, can't read on my own, can't play my video games. I can't even dra-"

Lincoln caught himself as if he had almost given away a big secret.

"Either way, I can't do most of the things I enjoyed doing," Lincoln said and then he found himself beginning to frown.

He began to wring his hands together and said, "And if it's permanent..."

Lucy grasped one of his hands and then looked around to make sure that no one could see them. Regardless if whether Lincoln could see her or not, she actually gave him a rare smile from her.

"I can help you find some new things to try. Things that don't require sight to be to enjoyed," Lucy said as she scooted closer to him.

Lincoln still frowned and said, "Think you can?"

"I can try at least. You still have that creative mind of yours don't you?" she asked.

Lincoln thought it over for a moment. True he couldn't see, but he could still think and he could still hear. Maybe there were some things that were worth trying and Lucy had very rarely led him astray in the past.

"I suppose," Lincoln answered her.

Lucy still smiled, but still she looked around to make sure no one could see her as she did so.

"As for reading though, I know someone who can help you with that," Lucy continued.

"You do?" Lincoln asked.

Lucy nodded, out of habit, and said, "Yes. Remember my friend Haiku?"

Lincoln cringed and said, "How could I forget? She and three other girls wanted to tear me and each other apart remember?"

Lucy sweat dropped. Yeah she still remembered the incident with the Sadie Hawkins Dance. She had only wanted to do something nice for Lincoln, but wasn't aware that three of her other sisters had thought of doing the same thing. While she was happy that things turned out well for everyone in the end, she did feel some guilt that her friend, her sisters friends and her brother had to go through all of that. Haiku had even been a little upset with Lucy, but she quickly got over it as she had made good friends with one of Lincoln's friends. So things still worked out for everyone in the end.

"Don't worry, she's over that. The thing is, she knows how to read braille and has no problems teaching others how to read it," Lucy stated.

"Braille?" Lincoln asked as he wasn't sure what that was.

Lucy groaned and said, "Sigh! Braille is a written language that the blind use to be able to read, much like how Sign Language is used to help the deaf or mute communicate. It takes study to get it down, but will help you to be able to read again. Whether your condition is permanent or not, it may still be information that would be useful to have."

Lincoln took a moment to think this over. He knew that Lucy did have a point. Neither they nor the doctor knew how bad his condition truly was and it would probably be good to have something in place just in case he didn't recover his sight. Not to mention that even if he did get better, learning something like that might be pretty cool or even helpful in the long run. Lucy was one of his sisters that he trusted the most and whenever she had ideas like that, it usually led to good things as a result. Key word being "usually".

Lincoln nodded and said, "Alright. I think I can try to learn it."

Lucy took another look around the room to make sure it was clear and with the smile still on her face she said, "Good. I'll see if I can have her stop by after school tomorrow and see if you guys can get started."

Lincoln smiled and pulled her into a hug.

"Thanks Lucy," he said.

This time Lucy couldn't suppress a chuckle and said, "It's the least I can do after everything you've done for me."

Lincoln chuckled as well and said, "What are big brothers for?"

Lucy was enjoying the hug, that is until she looked at the TV and saw that her program was coming back on. She pulled herself out of the hug, resumed her usual frown and sat attentive to the show in front of her.

"Okay time for talking is over. The show's back on," she said and focused back on the TV.

Lincoln merely sighed to himself and resumed listening to the TV in front of them. What he couldn't catch though was Lucy casting one last glance at Lincoln and giving him one last smile. But she chose the wrong time to do it, as Luna was just coming into view of the TV with a root beer in her hand.

She saw what Lucy was doing and said, "Dude, did you just smile?"

Lucy saw Luna and she groaned and said, "Dangit!"

* * *

Another hour or so passed and the house was really winding down. Most of the family was heading off to bed and Lincoln decided it would be best if he did the same thing as well. He climbed up from the couch, doing his best to not disturb Luna as she was dozing on the couch beside him. She had decided to take the couch for the night as she didn't want to be near Luan right now as the family comedian was still a brooding mess.

As Lincoln got up from the couch, Luna yawned and then sprawled herself out on the family couch. Lincoln could hear her shifting and sighed in relief as he had probably just dodged Luna using him as a pillow or foot rest.

Using his cane, he quickly found his way to the stairwell and ascended up them. As he reached the top step, he turned towards his room and went over to it and slipped inside. After having changed into his pajamas as best he could, he slipped off to the bathroom along with his cane. He did his business and quickly made to leave, but as he stepped outside he ran into someone who was standing just outside.

"Oof," came Luan's voice.

Lincoln stopped in his tracks and turned his attention to her.

"Luan? Was that you?" he asked.

Instead of giving him a straight answer, Luan quickly pushed him away and slammed the bathroom door shut. Lincoln was flabbergasted at Luan's behavior. Even at her worst times, she was never that pushy (except for maybe during the Sweet Spot incident) and would normally try to apologize in some way. But here she was just getting him out as quickly as she could and not even explaining herself.

Wondering what was up, Lincoln was about to knock on the door but before he could, he heard something on the other side. He pressed his ear against the wood of the door and he could hear Luan inside. It almost sounded like sniffling. Luan was crying? He wanted to investigate further, but Lincoln decided it would be best to just let her be for now. She'd talk about it when she was ready to do so. So Lincoln proceeded back to his room and heard one of the doors in the middle of the hall creak open.

"Hey Linc. Going to bed?" asked Lynn's voice.

Lincoln nodded and said, "Yep."

Lynn laughed and said, "Okay. Just make sure you fix your pajamas. You're wearing them inside out."

Lincoln paused and felt all around his pajamas. As his hands reached his back, he could feel the tag that was supposed to be on the inside of his pajama shirt was on the outside instead.

Lincoln groaned and said, "Dangit."

* * *

 **So I really really want to bring Haiku into the story. Out of all the minor characters in the show, I kinda like her the most. Might be because of her Gothic lifestyle, something I've always had an admiration with. And I got the idea that she should be the one to teach Lincoln something useful like understanding braille. So I decided that I should try to roll with it.**

 **Also if you folks have noticed the advertisments for the Halloween special, I have some fun trivia. Luna's costume and the music that plays at the end of the commercial are very reminiscent of a group known as The Ghastly Ones. They're a 90's rock group that has some very good and kinda creepy rock music. Check them out, it's cool stuff.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Okay so there's a lot to say before we get into things. First I do want to say that I am now offcially an award winner for the stuff I do at work. Yeah, where I live even haunted attractions are considered a part of theater, especially with improvisation and someone really enjoyed my character's morbid sense of humor. So I feel very proud now.**

 **Next I have to say that I really enjoyed the Halloween special, especially the B plot with Lucy's corn maze. As an experienced scare actor, I love the show putting focus on a pastime that doesn't get a lot of love or attention in mixed media. And Luna's song number is definetly one of the show's best scenes. Especially the reference to a "chainsaw massacre." Show's the kind of risks this show likes to take.**

 **And as for the new episodes that premiered last week, the episode with Lola and reading was my favorite of the three. The other two were good, but they didn't quite resonate with me like the one in between them. It was just good to see some proper character development for Lola and it was great seeing Lincoln being a good big brother to her. Yes Lincoln is selfish quite a bit, but he does have his more mature moments as well.**

 **That's all I have to say, so let's get started with the rest.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House**

* * *

Unlike the night before, Lincoln had a much easier time sleeping this evening. There were no nightmares to speak of, but yet he couldn't recall any dreams either. Nothing that wasn't unusual, but still something that could have been alarming in the grand scheme of things. He tried to put it out of his mind, but Lincoln still felt a little bit of anxiety over it as well. He had just begun to sit up in bed, but didn't know where to go next.

What time was it? How long had he been asleep? Had it been for a few hours? Or had it just been for a few minutes? He didn't know and he really didn't want to risk going out and angering anyone for waking them up in the middle of the night. So what to do?

The only thing he could do was lie back down in his bed and roll over with his back facing the door. He tried to go back to sleep, but didn't feel drained as he had earlier. Not knowing the time was aggravating and he wasn't sure if he should still be asleep or not. All he could do was listen for any activity going on outside the door. Then again, he might have overslept and missed everyone leaving. He wasn't sure and wasn't about to go asking, but he doubted they'd just leave him alone without waking him.

Some time after though (he wasn't sure how long), he heard the sound of some of the doors to his sisters rooms start opening and could hear the sounds of feet shuffling out of them. That gave him some comfort in knowing it was morning so now he knew he could get up without needing to ask anyone about the time. Still though, he really just didn't want to get up right now. He wasn't tired, but he really didn't want to have to face the world currently. All he wanted to do was just lie where he was and not have to deal with anyone or anything.

Unfortunatly that comfort wouldn't last long. Just a short while after, he could hear the sound of someone walking to his bedroom door and this was followed by someone knocking on the door.

"Lincoln, you up?" came Lori's voice.

Lincoln had to admit that it was nice for his sisters to respect his privacy for once. But at the same time he wondered if his blindness had something to do with it. Would they still be this nice if he could still see? He didn't know and that at the same time he couldn't shake the feeling.

Lincoln didn't feel any enthusiasm and said in a rather glum, "Yeah. I'm awake."

He heard his door creak open and could hear someone step in. Guess that shot down the privacy concern.

"Okay what's up?" Lori asked as she took a step into his room.

Lincoln groaned quietly so that she couldn't hear. Or so he thought.

"Nothing. Just still a little tired," he said without turning over.

Lori however wasn't so easily convinced. She merely crossed her arms and began tapping her foot against the floor. Lincoln could sense her aggravation and was silently wishing that she would just leave him alone.

"Yeah nice try Lincoln. Don't think I can't hear that tone in your voice. Plus I heard your groan just a second ago. Explain yourself right now mister," Lori demanded as she began to scowl at him.

Lincoln began to seeth a little bit and was beginning to scowl himself. He just really didn't want to be bothered right now, even though he knew that that wasn't going to happen. He had to go with his mother to her work today since she couldn't get today off. She always had to leave early and probably needed him to come down right now.

Lincoln sighed and said, "I just want to be left alone right now."

He heard Lori sigh as well.

"Look Lincoln, I get it and I understand that you feel upset right now. I get what you're feeling, but remember that mom is waiting for you and the rest of us need to get going. If you make us wait and we're late as a result, there will be trouble. Sight or no sight, I will make you regret it," Lori scolded as Lincoln lied there.

Lincoln wanted to argue, but he knew that she was right. Yes, he wanted his privacy right now and wanted to be left alone. But his parents needed to get to work and his sisters needed to get to school. Last thing he needed to do was get them all upset at him and give him heck about it as well.

He pulled himself up and said, "Okay. Just let me get dressed and I'll be right down."

Lori chuckled and said, "Good you see the lig-"

Lori paused as she took a second a catch herself on what she was saying.

"Okay that did not come out right at all. Sorry Lincoln," Lori said as she began sweat dropping and began rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

Lincoln began laughing in his mind at the sound of Lori's embarrassment.

He even laughed a little out loud as well and said, "It's fine. Give me a couple of minutes to get dressed."

Lori breathed a breath of relief and said, "Good. Now you have two minutes to get dressed or so help me I will drag you downstairs myself."

Now that's something Lincoln took seriously and began unbuttoning his pajamas.

"I'm going, I'm going," Lincoln said.

Lori smiled in satisfaction and as she closed the door she said, "Good."

As Lincoln stood there by himself, he couldn't help but reflect on things. Was this how his life was going to be now? Nothing but a void of darkness with everyone either trying to be overly nice to him? Or as something to be looked down upon?

At the very least, hew was glad to know that Lori was going to keep part of her personality intact with him regardless of what happened. And he knew that Luna was regretting her actions from the day before. But Luan's behavior the day before was evidence to him that some things probably wouldn't be the same. He believed that he should try talking to her when she was ready.

After all, she couldn't be bitter forever could she?

* * *

A short time later, Lincoln was dressed and sitting in the middle of Vanzilla with the rest of the family. He was stuck, right in the center of the group of girls. Not the best seat, but it had been another freezing day out so at the very least he was in the center of heat. The first stop that they had made, had been at the high school to drop off the four eldest children of the family.

Three of the four had even given Lincoln some form of encouragement. For Lori is was a pat on the shoulder, followed by a one armed hug from Luna and finaly full blown hug from Leni along with some sweet words from her. Luan however had simply said, "See ya" and left it at that. Lincoln was happy for the comfort from his three eldest sisters, but now he knew that Luan still felt kinda distant from him and the rest of the family as well. She hadn't said a thing during the entire drive to the school and Luna was the only one who hadn't tried to talk to her. This made Lincoln more than curious.

This made him feel worried.

Next was the middle school to drop off Lynn who had also given Lincoln a comforting pat on the shoulder and she also told him to forget about Luan. After that was the elementary school for the remaining girls, except for Lily who was on her way to the special daycare. Each one of Lincoln's younger sister, including Lucy and Lisa, had given him a hug. Though Lisa had waited until no one was looking and had promised to use Lincoln as a test subject if he told anyone about her little show of affection. Lincoln had simply smiled on the inside.

The next stop was the dentist's office where Rita worked. She made sure to help Lincoln out of the van and even held Lily up to him so that the little baby could try to give him a little hug. Since the daycare was along the way to the restaurant where Lynn Sr. worked, it was his duty to make sure Lily got there in time. But even as they drove away, Lily just kept looking out the window from her car seat and she waved at Lincoln as they drove away. Even though he couldn't see it.

Rita couldn't help but smile as she watched the exchange. She wished that it could have lasted a little bit longer, but she needed to get to the office and get to work. Not to mention that, even though it was a little less cold than yesterday, the air still kept stinging at their skin. She could feel her son beginning to shiver, so she patted his shoulder and led him away from the curb.

"Come on honey, we shouldn't be standing out here for too long. We don't need you catching a cold in addition to everything else," she said as she walked alongside him.

She grabbed Lincoln's hand and allowed him to carry his cane along in his other hand, just in case something were to happen and she couldn't pull him away in time. They walked into the building and quickly found the elevator. Before too long they were inside the dentist office where Rita worked.

"Ah Rita! About time you arrived," called out her boss, Dr. Feinstein.

Rita walked over, with Lincoln in tow, and said, "Morning Dr. Feinstein. Sorry for the wait, had some extended stops on the way over. I brought Lincoln along today, just like you suggested."

Dr. Feinstein looked down at the boy by Rita's side. He normally saw Lincoln as a happy child, but seeing him like this now was a bit different and he couldn't help but pity the poor boy. Seeing him standing there at his mother's side, with a cane in one hand and a bandage covering his eyes beneath was pretty depressing. In his years of working as a dentist, he had seen plenty of children come in with various disabilities. But for some reason, seeing the offspring of one his best workers in such a helpless state was a bit much for him.

"I see that you have. I'm sorry about what has happened. No parent or child should have to endure this," he said with the enthusiasm in his voice dropping.

Lincoln could hear the tone change in Dr. Feinstein's voice and wanted to frown in response. But he knew that he had to remain strong in his current state, especially around people that he knew. He did his best to not let his anguish show.

Dr. Feinstein cleared his throat and recomposed himself.

"Well then the break room might be the best place today, your son can wait there. I'm sorry, but today is most likely going to be boring for you Lincoln. If you want, I can put a radio in there and let you listen to some music. I'd let you listen to the TV but it's kind of... out of service," the Doc offered.

A quick view of the break room earlier in the day would have shown Lincoln that the TV had had a nasty "accident" involving Dr. Feinstein and his overly hot coffee mug.

Rita leaned down to Lincoln's ear and said, "Best we can do for now honey."

Lincoln knew it was the only option he'd have. He figured the next few days were going to be rough on him and that he would have to make the best of it.

Reluctantly, Lincoln nodded and said, "Okay."

* * *

A couple of hours had passed since they had arrived and now Lincoln was just plain bored out of his mind. The radio that the doctor had given him only played a few stations and none of them really contained music that he really liked. They mostly played classical music and some opera as well. Clearly Dr. Feinstein had an ear for more of the older music, older than this or the previous century or two. He had given up trying to find music to listen to and had mostly just talked with any of the doctors or assistants that had come in for their breaks. His mother even stopped by and checked on him from time to time to make sure that he was doing okay. He always said that he was, even though he was about ready to start banging his head against the wall. He really didn't want his mother doting on him all day long.

He would beat his hands against the table when he went a little while without anyone to talk to. If he had had Luna with him, she'd probably be joining him in his own little jam session.

But after a while he got bored of that as well. By now, it'd been quite a while since anyone had been in there and the music was beginning to drone into the background. By now he was about ready to lean back in the chair and take a nap, he was so bored. He did lean back in the chair however, straight to the point where he leaned back so far that the chair slid out from under him and Lincoln ended up tumbling to the floor.

"Oof!" he exclaimed as he hit the floor.

He was able to start pulling himself off of the floor and groaned as he did so. He had just started putting his chair back up to it's normal position, when he paused as he felt a familiar pressure that had been building up inside of him.

"Uh-oh! Gotta find the bathroom," Lincoln said as he felt the urgent need to pee.

Picking up his cane from off of the floor, he carefully crossed over to the break room door, using the cane to make sure that he didn't bump into anything.

He knew where he could find a bathroom in the office, and using the cane and his hand he was able to find his way there. But as soon as he had approached it, he stopped and sniffed the air for a second. There was a foul stench about and he could tell that it was coming from the other side of the door in front of him. Not to mention that as he stood there, he could hear the sound of someone having a rough time on the other side. Yeah, he was sure that he didn't want to use this particular bathroom right now.

He carefully backed away and knew that this was the only bathroom in the actual office area. He would have to leave the office to be able to find a usable bathroom. The good news is that he knew the way back to the waiting room area due to the several visits he had made in the past. But after that he didn't know where to find the bathrooms outside of the office. He thought that he should get his mom, since she would know where to look. But at the same time, he began thinking against it. It's not that he wouldn't have appreciated the help, but at the same time he didn't want to be dependent on her for it. He wanted to be able to take care of himself without everyone doting over him. Not to mention that he wanted to be spared the embarrassment of his mother walking him to the bathroom. Something that was easier said than done.

He thought about it and decided to not bother his mother with his needs. He knew that she was there to help if he needed, but wanted to show her that he could go without her help. Using his memory and his cane, he carefully made his way back towards the waiting area. Occasionally he would stop and listen for his mother to make sure that she wasn't around. Often times he'd have to sneak carefully, even to dodge Dr. Feinstein lest he try to rat Lincoln out.

By the time Lincoln had reached the waiting area, he had sweat beading down his forehead. He wandered out, none of the waiting patients even taking notice to him, and hid beneath the receptionist window. He carefully perked his ear out and could hear the sound of a page flipping from her position, indicating that she was reading a magazine. The timing of this couldn't have been more perfect.

Wanting to get this over with, Lincoln cleared his throat and while deepening his voice he asked her, "Excuse me miss, do you know where can I find the nearest bathroom?"

Lincoln held his breath as he knew that one of two things could happen. The receptionist could put down the magazine and spot him, potentially compromising him. Or she would resume her current position and wouldn't even bother to look up from her article.

Thankfully the latter happened and she said, "Turn to the right out the door and go two doors down. You can't miss it."

Lincoln sighed in relief and made his way across the room, using his cane to find his way across to the door after he had smacked into a wall and nearly walked right into a chair.

The receptionist never even looked up from her magazine and instead she merely rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, you're welcome... jerk."

Lincoln grimaced and scowled as he heard what she had just called him. But the uncomfortable feeling coming from his bladder reminded him of his current needs, so he ignored her for now and focused back on his current objective. He quickly left the dentist office, not even bothering to close the door as he left. He ran his hand along the wall as he tried to feel his way along to the bathroom. After a moment he had hit the first door, meaning he was halfway along and quickly found the second door after that.

His destination had been found. Not missing a beat, he opened up the door and went inside. However he was instantly met by the sound of a woman screaming and she began to yell for him to get out. Lincoln did just as he was told and realized that he had just walked into the wrong bathroom. Walking just a tiny distance more, he found another door and reached up to feel a plastic square sign and could feel a wheelchair shaped groove on the sign indicating the other bathroom.

He frowned and said, "Dang it!"

* * *

About two minutes later, Lincoln was walking out of the men's room breathing a sigh of relief as relief itself was plastered on his face. It had been no trouble using the bathroom and had even been an easier task than Lincoln had anticipated. Now all that he had to do was find his way back to the dentist office and slip back into the break room before his mother discovered his absence. Good thing that he at least knew the way back to the office and had a practical way of knowing which door to use. As he made his way down the hall though, he thought that could hear the sound of paws tapping across the ground nearby. Almost as if an animal were walking just near him.

It didn't take long for Lincoln to find out the truth.

As he was feeling his way along the wall, Lincoln had wandered a little further out into the hallway and straight into the path of an oncoming man. The two ended up colliding into one another and they both ended up crashing to the ground. Lincoln's cane skidded away from him a bit and he heard the man hit the floor nearby. This was followed by the sound of a dog whimpering and it yelped.

The man groaned and said, "Good job kid. Are you trying to get the both of us killed?"

Lincoln groaned as well and felt his mood suddenly begin to sour. This man sounded older, middle aged at the very least, and yet he had the nerve to talk like that to him.

"Excuse me? Didn't you see me coming?" Lincoln asked angrily.

The man let out a sarcastic laugh and said, "Oh you think you're so clever don't you kid? Just a regular George Carlin?"

Lincoln couldn't take this anymore. It was bad enough that this man was unapologetic in knocking him over, but now this man, a GROWN man, was mocking him. Mocking a blind kid no less.

"Back off man. Can't you see that I have a problem right now?" Lincoln said with venom in his voice.

Lincoln could hear the man getting up along with the dog whining a little more too.

"Is that you're next attempt at humor kid? Because I'm not laughing," the man retorted.

The man bent over and began feeling along the ground, looking for something.

"Hey kid, if you're not doing anything useful or if you feel like redeeming yourself, help me find my cane. I can't find my way without it," the man said as he felt along the ground near him.

As soon as those words left the man's mouth, Lincoln began to feel a sudden realization. This man should have been able to see him and yet had still collided with him and he apparently couldn't tell that Lincoln was blind. Combine that with a dog and the fact that this man was looking for a can could only mean one thing.

"You can't see either can you?" Lincoln asked him.

"Beg your pardon?" the man asked right before he suddenly grasped something.

The thing he had found was a cane alright, but it was nothing like the kind the man always carried. His had a plastic handle and it had certainly never felt like wood in the past. That's when the realization dawned on him as well.

He picked up Lincoln's cane and extended it to where he had heard Lincoln's voice was coming from.

"Is this YOUR cane son?" he asked as he held it out.

Lincoln reached his hand out in the direction of the man's voice and felt his fingers brush against the wooden handle of his cane.

"Yes it is," Lincoln said as he took it.

As he stood up though, his foot stepped on the other man's cane as well. Right before he finished pulling himself up, he made sure to pick the man's cane and offered it back to him. The man took it gratefully and thanked him.

"Listen kid, I'm sorry about what I said to you," the man said as he got back up to his feet and placed his hand on his dog.

Lincoln nodded out of habit and said, "I'm sorry too. I'm still trying to get used to this whole blind thing."

The man listened to what Lincoln had said and understood what he meant.

"You JUST go blind son?" the man asked.

Lincoln sighed and said, "Yeah. Just a couple of days ago. Our furnace went out and we released too much gas at once trying to relight it. The doctor says that it's most likely temporary, but I can't help but feel scared at the same time."

The man listened and couldn't help but let out a low whistle at how Lincoln described his accident.

"Sounds like flash blindness. I wouldn't worry too much son, stuff like that usually heals in time. Few hours to a few days at most. Sometimes it can last a few weeks. Just rest those eyes, that's the best thing you can do. I certainly hope that it is just temporary. It'd be a real shame for someone as young as you to lose one of nature's most precious gifts," the man said in support of Lincoln.

Lincoln smiled and said, "Thanks mister. How about you though? What happened to you?"

The man shrugged and said, "I don't know. I was born without my sight."

Lincoln's newly found good mood suddenly dropped. He thought that he had had it bad by suddenly losing his sight. But here he was, talking with a man who had never even gotten a chance to experience the joy of seeing the world itself.

"Oh! I'm sorry mister. That must be hard for you," Lincoln said as a frown started to form on his face.

The man chuckled a little and said, "Don't be sorry son. I've been blind my entire life and I got used to it a long, long time ago. While I do wish I could experience the world for what it really is, I do like to imagine what it's like though. To see the world in ways that most people can't is actually a very unique thing. Just because I can't see it with my own two eyes, doesn't mean I can't see the world in many other ways. I like to imagine what colors are like and how the people I meet look like."

This actually made Lincoln smile a little on the inside. It was true, he had been seeing things differently a bit lately. Such as listening to other things a bit more closely than he had before this whole thing started. The way the wind sounds as it passes over the family's chimney, the sound of the shower as it runs like he could hear every last drop of water as it hit the tub. Moreover, everything was beginning to smell and taste a bit better to him. Well, for the most part, as he could recall the person in the dentist's office bathroom earlier.

"The name's Lyle, by the way," the man said.

Lincoln laughed and said, "I think you'd fit right in with my family Lyle. My name's Lincoln."

Lyle laughed and said, "Just like the sixteenth president?"

Lincoln laughed as well and said, "Just like the sixteenth president."

The two laughed a little more, but they were quickly interrupted as a door nearby opened up and a familiar voice began to scold Lincoln.

"Lincoln! There you are, we've been looking all over the office for you," came Rita's admonishing voice.

Lincoln's good mood suddenly diminished as he heard his mother's scolding tone and it disappeared completely as he felt his mother's hand land on his shoulder. He had gotten caught up in his conversation with Lyle that he had completely forgotten that he had snuck out here initially. Now he figured that he would get scolded good.

Rita turned to Lyle and said, "I'm so sorry if my son was bothering you sir."

Lyle shook his head and said, "He wasn't a bother ma'am. In fact, a little chat sounds like something that he needed. It just feels nice to get a chance to talk with someone who can understand the kind of burden that we share."

That's when Rita suddenly realized that the man she was talking to was wearing tinted glasses, carried a cane and had a dog standing to his side. The dog itself was wearing a vest that read "SERVICE" on the side.

Rita put two and two together and said, "Oh, I see."

"Your boy just needed a little reassuring is all. Just because you lose your sight son, doesn't mean that it's the end. You just have to find a way to take a negative and turn it into a positive. Find a way that makes you appreciate yourself and your life even more. You do that and everything will be alright in the end. Me? I just prefer to view the world in a more positive light. It isn't easy, but it's well worth it in the end," the man said to both Rita and her son.

Lincoln smiled and said, "That actually does make feel a little bit better."

"And that's what's important," Lyle said and then they all heard his watch beeping.

"Oh we got to get going. You just remember what I said Lincoln. Even if you don't get your sight back, there's still a way to make everything like it was before. You just have to find the way. Now you take care yourself and good luck to you," Lyle said and then began walking off with his dog helping him along.

"Bye Lyle. Take care of yourself," Lincoln called back to him.

"You too kid," Lyle answered back.

As soon as Lyle was gone, Rita guided Lincoln back into the doctor's office and took him back into the break room. As soon as they were there, Rita seated Lincoln in one of the chairs and stood before him.

"Now will you kindly tell me why you wandered away from the office young man? I told you to stay here," Rita asked in her scolding tone again.

Lincoln shrunk back and said, "Well I had to use the bathroom and the one here was a bit... busy. I didn't want to bother you while you worked and I wanted to try to handle it on my own. I really want to be able to do things without relying on you guys for everything."

Rita's scolding glare suddenly faded away as she heard what Lincoln was saying. She understood what he was saying. He wanted to be independent and wanted to do stuff without anyone helping him along the way. She understood that, but at the same time it worried her. Lincoln wasn't used to this yet and would have to prepare himself for the chilling possibility that he could be stuck like this. And he couldn't do that without help along the way.

"Oh honey, I understand. But remember that you just lost your sight two days ago. You still have a lot to learn about this whole thing and it's going to take a little bit to get used to it. Tell me, did anything bad happen while you were going to the bathroom?" Rita suddenly asked.

Lincoln recalled having walked into the women's room and having walked straight into Lyle out there. It's true, he wasn't used to it yet and would have more to learn as time went on. Especially if he was going to learn braille from Haiku. He would need help along the way before he was ready to tackle the world alone.

"Yes," Lincoln answered her.

Rita nodded and said, "And that's why we're here honey. Not just me, but your dad and sisters too. To help prepare you for the independence that you want, it'll take time to get there. You're family is here for you sweetie."

Lincoln smiled and said, "Thanks mom. Sorry for wandering off."

Rita sighed in relief and said, "It's okay honey. Just come get me next time. I know it might feel embarrassing, but your the only one who goes through stuff like this. Okay?"

Lincoln nodded and said, "Yes ma'am."

Rita felt like a weight taken off of her shoulders and then looked around the drab break room and knew that it must have been boring for her son to stay stuck in here all day.

So she took a look at the clock on the wall and said, "Well my lunch break is coming up in a little while and my boss is letting me extend it for a bit. So I thought that we could go to this little cafe in the building next door. It's supposed to have good food and you won't be cooped in here during that time. What do you say?"

Lincoln didn't even need to think twice about it. As soon as she had offered, he was already nodding his head and agreeing.

Rita smiled and said, "Great. let me just help with a couple more patients and then we'll go."

She quickly hugged her son and went back out into the office. Lincoln sat back in his chair and thought back to everything that Lyle had told him. Maybe there was something to losing his sight. He was certainly hoping that come Friday his vision would be back, but now he felt some solace. Even if he never regained his sight, there was still something to look forward to.

* * *

 **Okay so this will be the last chapter until after I come home from vacation. Made it nice and long for everyone so I hope you all enjoy.**

 **Part of this chapter was inspired by part of the plot from the episode Out of Sight, Out of Mind from MASH where Hawkeye bonds with a soldier who will never get his sight back. I just felt that Lincoln would benefit from meeting someone else who can't see and I hope I did well there.**

 **I also wanted to say that part of the inspiration for Lyle comes from a Youtuber named Tommy Edison. He's a man who is blind from birth and has an entire channel dedicated to talking about his experiences. He really does seem like the happiest person in the world and his channel is a fascinating one. If you get a chance, check him out. You won't regret it.**

 **You folks stay safe and have a happy Halloween.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Okay, before we begin I just want to say that I am deeply sorry for the very long wait. After vacation, things sort of got a bit jarring in my life. Work got really hectic as the Christmas season proved to be busier than usual and we started it a bit early this year. Not to mention there were some things that happened while on vacation and the results have seeped into my personal life and have required a lot of attention. To make a long story short, my little sister's getting married.**

 **Also I ran into a block while writing what was supposed to be the second half of this chapter. Suffice it to say, I didn't plan it plan it out very well and as a result I ran into a ton of aggravation. Because of that, there were times where I didn't come back in here to work for a couple of days at a time. So I decided to split into two different chapters and we'll see how I can do from there.**

 **And as for those who are bothered by Luan's behavior in this story, I really don't blame ya. Just please bear with it until we get to the day that the girls are looking after Lincoln, because I have a special scene planned for that day.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Loud House**

* * *

While Lincoln sat back at the dentist's office, the older girls of the family were going about their regular school day as best as they could. For Lori, it was simpler than the rest. She had told the rest of her friends the day before about what had happened to Lincoln. They had all been stunned by the news of course and they were all offering Lori their emotional support. For the most part, Lori had been feeling fine. After she had had her talk with Lincoln the day before, she had felt a great weight lifting from her shoulders. Although she still carried quite a bit of worry on her.

Despite the reassurances that she offered towards her friends, they still couldn't help but worry for the boy and still gave their apologies to Lori and even asked her to give Lincoln their best wishes. Something that Lori gratefully agreed to do.

Throughout the day, they secretly texted her or passed her notes when their teachers weren't looking. It made her happy to know that her friends cared so much about her and her family. She and her family had had their problems in the past, but hardly anything as serious as this in the past. She had stood with them when they had had family problems as well, so it was nice to see them return the gesture.

In the meantime, Leni was taking her own classes as best as she could. Due to her limited intelligence (for lack of better words), some of her peers were constantly trying to put the instructor's words into phrases that were easier for her to understand. It wasn't just because of her mental issues today that had them more concerned than ever, but it was also the constant look of worry that plagued her normally cheerful face that made them a bit more attentive. They had asked her about it, but she had refused to tell them and promised to explain everything to them later on at lunch.

Judging by the looks she was frequently making, they feared that any explaination she'd give would be sure to make her cry. And despite her ditziness, Leni had enough comprehension to know that crying would be a bad thing to do right in the middle of class.

Luan, whom was usually the class clown type, took many of her friends and classmates by surprise by not telling any of her infamous puns or pulling any of her usual small pranks that she pulled on them on a daily basis. In fact, she wasn't even breaking eye contact with her books or the notes she was constantly scribbling down. She wasn't even smiling... at all. Some of them had heard about her issues at home due to her older sisters and THEIR friends and were able to sympathize. As for the ones who didn't though, some had genuine concern while others were relieved to be free of pranks today. They had tried asking her about it, but she would always brush them off and say that she was fine. And they just left it at that.

Lunchtime came around and that was the one time of the day that most of the sisters saw each other. Luna, Luan and Leni had lunch around the same time, while Lori was still in class. Leni sat off on one side of the cafeteria and was in the middle of confessing to her friends about the problems at home while Luan sat by herself a few tables away and merely frowned and silently ate her lunch as she heard Leni cry her story out.

In the meantime in the middle of the cafeteria, Luna sat at a seperate table, also by herself. Normally she'd be hanging out with some of the other school musicians, one of them a fellow rock girl named Sam, and Luna would most likely be strumming on her acoustic guitar and they would try to jam along with her. She had brought her guitar with her today, but yet she just didn't feel the urge or energy to play right now. Right now it sat propped against the leg of the table, neglected and ignored by it's owner and even that got to Luna. To her, it was a reminder as to how she had tried to treat her brother the day before and it shamed her. Her gaze turned back to where Leni was sitting and watched as she and her friends hugged it out as she cried. And then her gaze fell on Luan, still as emotionless as earlier and the day before. Luna could feel her blood begin to boil as she looked at her comedian sister and her anger would just continue to rise. All she could do was turn away from Luan and maybe look towards the exit. What she didn't realize was that someone else was standing right near her as she violently turned about.

"Whoa Luna! You trying to knock me over or something?" came the voice of the blond haired girl standing right beside her.

Luna jumped and then froze as she clutched her chest as she let out a yelp. This was followed by Luna taking some deep heaving breaths. Why did this particular girl need to here? Why now? Luna could only hope that her heart rate would slow down.

"Jeez Sam! What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?" Luna gasped out as her heart began to calm down. In her mind she hollered to herself, 'Subtle Luns!'

Sam merely laughed and said, "Call it payback for nearly knocking me over a second ago. I was just about to tap on your shoulder."

Luna couldn't help but smile and laugh at Sam's witty comeback and at the way that Sam's laugh sounded to her. As Luna's laugh's began to subside, Sam took a seat in the chair next to Luna and even leaned back a bit in it when she was sure that no teachers or school administrators were nearby and could see her.

"So what's up with you today? Why aren't you jamming with me and the others like always? And what's up with your other sisters too? They all look a little mopey today," Sam asked as she settled into her seat and pointed out a still upset Leni and Luan.

Luna took a sharp inhale and held her breath after Sam had asked her question. Luna hadn't yet told any of her friends about what had happened to her brother and wasn't sure how. She was sure that word would get back to them eventually through either Lori or Leni. Given Luan's mood the past day and a half, Luna was sure that the first of her younger sisters wouldn't be very talkative with them. So she was now a little caught in something that she knew that she wouldn't be able to hide.

So what else could she do?

Luna began to rub the back of her neck and said, "Well there's kind of been some trouble at home for the past day or so."

Sam's smile began to fade a bit as Luna stated those words. Intrigued, she began to sit up straight in her chair again and then leaned in to hear some more.

"Really? What's going on?" Sam asked.

This time Luna was no longer rubbing the back of her head. She was now beginning to rub her shoulder as she took another sharp inhale and pondered how she was going to explain this. She knew the best way would to just tell her the straight truth, but she had no idea how to begin her explanation.

"Well?" Sam asked a little more forcefully.

Now that she knew that she couldn't delay this any further, Luna decided to just say how it all began.

She exhaled sharply and said, "Well it all began the other night when our furnace went out in the middle of the night and Lincoln, my little bro, accidently startled us all awake from the cold. Suffice it to say, almost everyone was upset about being woken up."

Luna spent the next ten minutes or so explaining the events of that night and the next day as well. She even went as far as to explain that she had initially tried to ignore Lincoln earlier that day. She even explained the events of this morning as well and even went into detail with Luan's behavior and that she herself had had to spend the night on the living room couch.

Sam sat and listened to everything little detail that Luna had to explain. As she heard, she had begun to understand the behavior of Leni and Lori a bit more. Even Luan's crabby personality right now was a bit more understandable to her. But yet, she was still a bit shocked when Luna told her that she had originally tried to ignore her brother, her LITTLE and ONLY brother at that.

"Wow. You really tried to do that to your brother when he needed you? Luna why would you... how could you do that to him?" Sam asked.

Luna cringed, rubbed her shoulder some more and said, "I know I know and I'm not proud about it either. If anything, I feel like beating myself over it."

Luna buried her eyes into the palms of her hands and said, "I'm such an idiot."

Sam sighed and shook her head as she grabbed Luna's wrists and pulled Luna's hands away from her eyes.

"Hey, you don't need to worry about it. We all do stupid things and at least you're learning from what you did. There are worse things you could have done and from you told me, it sounds like Lincoln understands," Sam stated.

Luna nodded and then turned her attention back to where Luan was sitting.

"Tell me about it. Luan over there began yelling at him last night after some party and has been ignoring him ever since. I had to sleep on the couch last night because of her lousy attitude. It's like she doesn't even care what's going or how it affects the rest of us?" Luna explained.

Sam looked in Luan's direction and began glaring at the comedian girl as well.

"That little brat. Luna, you just give me the word and I'll make her sorry right now," Sam offered to her.

Luna was tempted by the offer. The way Luan had been carrying on was really beginning to get to her and the rest of the family. The way she just ignores all the issues going on at home, the way she's been treating the rest of them, the way she'd been treating their brother was grounds for some much deserved retribution. But at the same time, Luna had some strong feelings that there was more going on with Luan than what she had perceived. And she wanted to get to the bottom of it before she took any action.

Instead, Luna just shook her head and said, "I love the offer, I really do, but I'm going to decline it for now. I want to see if I can get through to her first and make her explain. If it looks like things aren't going well, I might take you up on it."

Sam shrugged and said, "Okay, but if you ever need me for anything, don't be afraid to ask."

Luna began to sweat a little by that notion, but still just nodded and said, "Thanks Sam, you're one of the few people in this school who gets me."

Sam smiled and asked, "You really mean that?"

Luna nodded again and said, "Around here, there's _No One Like You."_

Sam nodded in response and said, "Well that's good to know."

Just as the girls had finished, the school bell began to ring, signalling that the lunch period had now come to an end.

Luna groaned and said, "Darn that bell. Why does it have to kill the mood?"

Sam sighed and said, "Well it looks like we go back to class. Say, if your brother needs some aid I can help."

"You can?" Luna asked.

Sam nodded and said, "I can tell you about it later after school if you wish."

Luna nodded and said, "Whatever helps my little bro."

Sam nodded and walked off to join the rush of students that were leaving the school cafeteria. Luna couldn't help but watch the blonde haired girl as she walked away, being careful to stifle her real thoughts about Sam, but inside of her she couldn't hide it.

' _I just want to be loved by you,'_ she said in her head as she stood to leave the cafeteria.

* * *

 **So as I stated above, there was supposed to be a longer chapter here, but I got so aggravated with it that I think I'll just make that part it's own chapter as well. Sorry that this one was so short, but I was tired of making everyone wait so I figured that a short chapter would be better than no chapter at all. I promise that the next one will be longer.**

 **Luna's song reference in this chapter is the song _No One Like You_ by The Scorpions. **


End file.
